JHK’s Three-Act Play, Big Slide
A log mansion in the Adirondack Mountains…
A big family on the run…
A nation in peril…
Visit the Big Slide Page to order, perform, or see sample scenes.

Ho ho ho! It’s that time of year again. Here’s JHK’s holiday classic: A Christmas Orphan.

11-year-old Jeff Greenaway hears his mom and dad argue one night after an office Christmas party. He infers from their garbled squabble that he is an orphan, found in a willow basket on the welcome mat outside their New York apartment. Thinking now that his parents are imposters, he steals away to Grand Central Station and buys a train ticket to Drakesville, Vermont, where he intends to start life all over again.Print | Kindle | Kobo (Digital) | Barnes & Noble (Digital)

I srael’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summed it up the other day when he said, “We use our rockets to protect our women and children; they [Hamas] use their women and children to protect their rockets.”

Some time ago, the Left adopted the Palestinians as their pet oppressed minority group so there is nothing that Israel might do that will be okay with them, except to commit suicide, that is, cease to exist — which is the stated policy of Hamas. Every time Israel refuses the suggestion that it cease to exist, the Left becomes inflamed. They cannot imagine why Israel would prefer to fight for its existence than to roll over and die.

The Palestinian leadership doesn’t really want to talk about any resolution to the enduring crisis in which Israel is granted the right to exist. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for negotiation, and so they have literally painted themselves into a geographical corner of the region called the Gaza Strip where one of their other policies is to grow the Palestinian population in the hopes of eventually wiping Israel off the map by sheer demographic pressure. The political Right Wing of Israel is using exactly the same tactic in the contested West Bank. All of that is tragic, of course, because when the oil age comes to an end the entire region of the southern Levant will probably support one-twentieth of the population of all ethnic groups.

The New York Times reported that street protests against Israel had broken out in London and Paris, giving the impression that some broad national sentiment was being expressed when, in fact, the protesters were from the large Muslim communities that these nations had foolishly invited to immigrate there. Has anyone in the West still failed to notice the pugnacity of Islam in our time? Islam does not want to co-exist with the West anymore than the Palestinians want to grant Israel the right to exist.

Luckily for the West, there is enough animosity between the Islamic factions to distract Islam from its mission to defeat all the great-and-small Satans cluttering up their world. All this is happening as that world lurches into the twilight of the oil age, which until lately had given so much financial leverage to Islam. Really, the entire Middle East, including Israel, has overpopulated itself so severely that the only plausible outcome is the desperate fight over what’s left. A hundred and fifty years ago a mere half million people inhabited the place that is now Israel, and more than 90 percent of them were Arabic. Then came the great Industrial explosion of activity, migrations, and soaring birth rates thanks to fossil fuels. When that phase of history concludes, the population there will go down accordingly.

Over millennia, Israel or Palestine or the Levant (take your pick) has been under the dominion of rotating empires: Greece, Rome, Byzantium, the Egyptian Mameluks, the Turks, Great Britain. Who owns what has been an expression of a particular slice of time, and the current time is no different. As a geographical crossroads of trade and cultures, the region is one of the most fought-over places in the world and may continue to be as long as human beings are around. Hamas and the Palestinians in effect declared war on Israel by lobbing rockets out of Gaza and now Israel is answering. The Palestinians have got the war they asked for and they are trying to manipulate world opinion by mingling their war machine in the heart of their population center of Gaza City. Their choice.

The other hot zone in the world right now, Ukraine, got hotter the past week when somebody or some faction shot down a commercial Malaysian airliner. The question that no news organ has so far raised: why are any commercial airlines routing their planes over a war zone? Especially a war zone where other airplanes have been shot down recently. Just how dumb has the human race become?

And as sad as this incident may be, what business is it of the USA to get involved over a downed flight of a foreign airline that originated in the Netherlands and was carrying passengers overwhelmingly of Dutch nationality? Our presumption to involve ourselves in this is flat-out insane. It’s the kind of behavior that leads to world wars.

About James Howard Kunstler

James Howard Kunstler is the author of many books including (non-fiction) The Geography of Nowhere, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, Home from Nowhere, The Long Emergency, and Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology and the Fate of the Nation. His novels include World Made By Hand, The Witch of Hebron, Maggie Darling — A Modern Romance, The Halloween Ball, an Embarrassment of Riches, and many others. He has published three novellas with Water Street Press: Manhattan Gothic, A Christmas Orphan, and The Flight of Mehetabel.

My first reaction to hearing about the shot down Malaysian Airlines flight was “this is the kind of incident that (ostensibly) drew the United States into World War I.” At that time, I was afraid that there were a lot of Americans on board, which would echo the sinking of the Lusitania. Fortunately, there were only one or two. On the other hand, the Dutch and Australians are mighty pissed off, having lost so many citizens. In the case of the Dutch, the country has lost as large a proportion of their population as the U.S. from 9-11. As you noted, neither can do much about it.

a major television news organ quoted a dutchman stating that the loss of lives for their small country is the equivalent to the loss of lives in the u.s. on 9/11. of course the dutch are not insane enough to reply in like manner to the Russians/Ukrainians. a comparison like that being broadcast internationally is the same as the tactic kunstler refers to regarding the milking of sympathy for “innocent” palestinians.

the whole religious sector including buddhism and catholicism is putrid and pugnacious!

just because israel will not have sole control over jerusalem forever does not mean they will disappear as a race. if you read their books you will clearly discern that their god promises there will always be a remnant however sparse and spread out of jews. in fact, palestinians claim to be direct descendants of abraham! i googled it:

They do claim to be descendants of Abraham…through Ishmael, Abraham’s son conceived through Hagar the slave. God does provide for Hagar and Ishmael in the Bible, and the Koran goes further and states that Abraham returned to Hagar and Ishmael and, amongst other things, established the Kabbah as a place of worship.

More interesting is the possibly more direct connection to Abraham and Sarah. It’s possible that the Palestinians were the direct descendants of the Samaritans, people who stayed around after their brethren were taken to Babylon and intermarried with the locals. They probably became Christians, then converted over time to Islam, thereby giving the religion of the outcasts become rulers a link to the original seed of Abraham and Sarah.

This blog censors perfectly civil disagreement with the historically untenable views of J Kunstler concerning Israel and the Palestinians. My posts have been removed with others, despite a tolerance for a high percent of ad hominem posts. If you don’t like what I say , how about having the civility to say why?

Well JHK you can put part of the blame on the geniuses of the Frankfurt School and their seminal work “The Authoritarian Personality.” My guess is that the only thing saving Israel is Hamas itself, imagine an Israel where the arabs surrender? I do remember that flunky stooge Abbas giving that threat some years ago by vowing to dissolve the Palestinian Authority, so I wonder how much he is being paid to keep up that stupid front?

Personally if I were an Arab I would pray to my god goat bender for a surrender, because an Israeli passport is gold compared to the crap they have now.

IDF these days is more known as a setting for gay porn than military prowess. Not that gays cannot serve and serve well, they most certainly have, but gay culture is freaking silly.

Even a hardened right wing bastard as myself is unsettled by the left’s passive-aggressives tearing the wings off the Israeli butterfly. Because if they can do it to Israel imagine what they will do to everyday run of the mill white breads?

Honestly Israel is trying to be an outpost of civility in that sea of human distress, you can see that via Haaertz in English, dating ads, bicycle tours of wine country versus the Arab calls to the 7th century and the growing bellicosity of their supporters in the ruined West.

Kubrick nailed it in “Clock Work Orange” but NO you wouldn’t listen to him would you?

How funny, Israeli “butterfly”. Are you referring to the same Israeli butterfly that attacked and tried to murder the crew of the USS Liberty in 1967? Maybe the Israeli butterfly that ran over Racheal Corrie with a tractor. This isn’t a left /right issue unless you make it one in your beautiful mind.

Jews and Christians lived in relative peace in North Africa and the Middle East for centuries. Once the imperial powers of France and Britain carved up these areas with Sykes-Picot, the stage was set for pogroms and bloodletting. Most recently 1,900 years of Christianity in Mosul has come to an end.

The notion of having a religion based nation-state is madness unless it is a tiny pimple like the Vatican. Israel is an abomination and apartheid state; there is only one solution now — one secular state, but the wingnuts would never allow it.

Let us not forget the US is the successor superpower to France and Britain. We have learned nothing from their centuries of failures. Indeed, the case could be made because of globalization and banking, it is even worse.

The US is like a serial arsonist; it just can’t stay away from places with flammable and combustible materials. Playing with matches in Russia’s backyard seems to be a good way to have WW-4.

A religion based state. That’s odd because the UK is one. HM the Queen is the the head of the Church of England. Oddly though we do not have quite as much trouble with Islam as Israel do. That in itself is curious as a higher percentage of Israeli citizens, nearly 20 percent, are muslims than our 5 percent. The israeli muslims cause little trouble, they are all too aware of the horrors of the apartheid islamic states that surround Israel where as ours riot and chop the heads off soldiers if of course theyre not off on jihad in some islamic shithole whilst claiming off our welfare system.
It is another curious facet where a million Muslims live quite happily in a Jewish of a few million yet far far fewer Jews than that live in all the Islamic states combined. Must be something to do with their islamaphobia. After all how could the tolerant peace loving Muslims that we are always told exist not welcome them in Mecca and Medina. Why would the few Arab countries that tolerate them tax them at different rate, forbid the building of synagogues, or churches for that matter. Doesn’t the religion of peace give equality to all!
The left and the jew haters, they are not naturally inclusive, tie themselves up in knots trying to spit bile at the jews whilst humming loudly to blank out the screams of this weeks tens of thousands of dead christians, jews, buddhist, hindus, sikhs and muslims, all victims of the religion of peace. The latter of course are martyrs, unless of course it happened to be a little muslim girl trying to get an education or perhaps avoid being married to a 50 year old kiddie fiddler, who oddly enough, will no doudt have the same name as the brigand, I mean prophet, who sanctioned the whole thing by marrying a six year old and boning her when she was nine.
Janos will be along shortly for his inane and insane rant on how its all the jews fault and anyway they ………. fill in the ramblings of a mad loon here……
You really couldn’t make the insanity of the whole thing up…….

the uk is not run from the palace, from the parliament. when king no longer recognized rome as the holy see, they became secular.
any christian state that recognizes homosexuality as legal and acceptable are hypocrites and no longer operating under their chosen divinity – jesus christ.

The flying Lusitania! This isn’t a surrounded and isolated Germany, this is Russia, the great bear. Mother Russia. Russia has so much geopolicial power right now it is frightening. At the end of the oil age, having oil to export is the key to political power. America has only a huge mouth that drinks the stuff like crazy. Our military would grind to a halt without it. The average American soldier consumes 20 gallons a day, eveyday.

A bit of a coincidence that Kunstler suggests that after the oil age is over Israel/Palestine will support perhaps 1/20 of its previous population.

Before reading this I had just posted a comment to an article about climate change that I figured the human race would survive the end of the oil age, but at perhaps 5% of the population it currently is at.

End of the oil age, peak oil, etc. is not about completely running out of oil. It is about affordable oil. 300 years from now if you want a quart of oil, you will be able to get it but it will be very very expensive and you can’t afford it. Thus this will be a longer term problem as Jim and Greer and others have stated. The 5% figure is a long time off without another Carrington Event.

It’s about ultimately recoverable oil. The ratio of barrels of oil extracted to barrels of oil expended has steadily declined. There will be no more by mid century, if what I have read is true.

The immediate concern and certain conclusion you can make is that US dollars soon will not be trusted or used as a medium of exchange for oil, let alone anything else. Thus, the reason for the insanity of present US foreign policy, which now seems to include a false flag event, using an Su-25 to down a civilian airliner and blame it on Russia and the “insurgents” in the east. If you haven’t read the views on cluborlov yet, give it a look.

The US is decaying, losing its hegemony, and the petrodollar getting pummeled against the ropes. Time to resort to demonizing the “enemy” (Russia, the fore front of BRICS nations and their new central bank, new credit rating agency, and the leading the way of dropping the US petrodollar as the world’s reserve currency). That as a prelude to all out war. The borders are being flooded with children, Obama has the scared deer in the headlights look on his face, Hitlery Clinton and John killer Kerry were and are proclaiming Russia’s “fault” in all of this even before the facts are out, all out war in the middle east, and now saber rattling with the Russian bear. Truly the acts of a desperate, dying empire in its death throes

Gaza is not about to push Israel into the sea. The death of Dror Chanin is a tragedy but so far he has been the only Israeli killed by a rocket. His fate is not a harbinger of the fate of Israel. The several hundred deaths of Palestinians is far more indicative of the future fate of Gaza than the death of Dror Chanin is indicative of the demise of Israel.

The Israeli war machine could make the entire Gaza Strip glow in the dark. They out-arm Gaza a hundred to one and also have nukes.

Saying the Gaza Strip has a ‘war machine’ is as you would say ‘scurrilous’.

Palestinian war machine is still firing rockets from schools, mosques, and theme parks. If they quit firing rockets, I’ll bet the IDF will go home. Actually their war machine is people around the world that hate Israel. I’m not Jewish but I have been there and seen the problem first hand. What is the product from Gaza other than babies?

Apparently if Mexico elects to fire thousands of these missiles over the US border kdog will regard it as just the silliness of little kids with fireworks. In reality like every other yank he’d be screaming blue murder.
For years in Northern Ireland we had trouble with the PIRA. Unlike Gaza the people of Eire wanted little to do with them, mainly because the Irish are not complete loons though politics did play a part. The government of Eire were also quite aware that support for a campaign such as the Israelis have endured would result in British tanks parked in Dublin very quickly. Hence they actually jailed almost as many PIRA as we did.
The people of Boston had a taste recently of what allowing the support of terrorist groups can bring you, it is a shame that more Americans were not aware of that it would have cost far fewer lives in NI without the NORAID collection tins rattled so loudly.
The same fools though will be found spouting free gaza as were espousing support for PIRA. Most vile are the left wingers whose support for the extreme socialist manifesto of PIRA never made the news much. Just 25 years ago they were a loathed breed now you find them in your and our government spouting love, tolerance and inclusivity, unless you’re a bunch of jews of course…………

Kdog, hamas claim to have 30,000 missiles many with a range of over 100 km. Hundreds of thousands of AK rifles, RPGs, heavy machine guns, mortars, landmines. We know theyve got them we’ve seen them on the news footage filmed by the palis. The taleban were less well equipped, remind me how that went again.
Maybe the native Americans should have the same on their reservations, after all it’s not a war machine is it. Or maybe the Atzlan movement. After all fairs fair…………..

Actually, Israel ended the Gaza occupation and removed its settlements there a few years back. Hamas then proceeded to arm itself with long range rockets.

Although Israel’s war machine out-arms Gaza, it restricts itself to militant targets, admittedly a nearly impossible feat to pull off when its opponent is embedded in civilian neighborhoods. Consequently, too many innocents are killed but that is an unfortunate, tragic result of Hamas’ policy to operate in this manner. Most or all of the 25 Israeli soldiers killed in the past few days would now be alive if Israel had deployed its machine in an indiscriminate manner as ignorant observers claim it is and as many other armies would.

I don’t see the current Hamas as an immediate threat to the existence of Israel, but that’s only thanks to these tactical operations to reduce or eliminate their military buildup. Left to their devices, the next logical step for them would be the acquisition of a nuclear device and its use over Israeli population centers.

Then you could afterwards explain oldnurse, why you were one more of the people that chose to stand by while a second holocaust happened.

Yeah, like the Polish fighting the Nazis in WW2, they were embedded all over the place because they had no choice. The Nazis gave them no choice. If the Polish chose to only fight in and around their military bases, the Nazis knew exactly where to bomb.

Palestinians (that 90% of the population that was there before) had their homes taken, food and medical supplies are extremely limited, massive unemployment…and Israel keeps expanding. Of course they will fight back.

If this were a Star Trek episode, I would point out that the prime directive was broken. The USA armed Israel to the teeth, even with 200+ nuclear weapons. Captain Kirk would have to arm the opposite side with the same. Can you imagine Russia giving Hamas 200 nukes?

About 70% of the remaining oil is in the middle east…and sure enough, the USA put a turd in the punch bowl. Right in the middle, they place their 51st state, a military outpost disguised as a place called Israel. From that vantage point, they can easily start any aggression against other oil rich nations. Especially when they antagonize the Muslims by keeping them down and starving them. James, you of all people should see this is the resource wars and the USA and Britain established their ace in the hole after WW2. Israel is there to stir the shit and is just a big opening move in the grand chessboard.

I don’t like colonialism from Israel and I don’t care for religion, and neither side has clean hands on this. But Palestine is obviously the underdog. If you don’t think so…give them 200 nukes and see how things change.

Actually the Polish army engaged the Germans in the open. The Germans, even in their own accounts, deliberately bombed Polish civilians fleeing the area.
Israel built its own nukes, if indeed it actually has any as it has never actually said it has. The 200 plus is mere supposition on your part.
If food is limited why are the Palis so high on the WHO scale of obese nations.
Why are medical supplies limited, they can smuggle in 30,000 rockets, machine guns, mines, rpgs why not medical supplies?
Why does egypt not supply them they have a border with them you know?
Why if water is so short are there so many houses with private swimming pools.
If building materials are so short that they cannot build air raid shelters how can they build so many reinforced bunkers for weapons or luxury swimming pools.
Why, if they are so restricted, can you buy the latest iphones there.
Why are so many unemployed when they receive billions in aid yearly? Surely it couldn’t be because they have developed a welfare mentality, so prevalent in the USA and the UK?
Why is Gaza short of buses but has a higher proportion of Audi per head than Israel(give you a clue there know as Hamas taxis).
Why is at least one of these black audis found at houses with swimming pools(gues whos commanders live there).

First, the largest underground resistance army during ww2 was the Polish Home Army…keyword, UNDERGROUND.

moving on..

There are, in fact, nice restaurants in Gaza and a few good supermarkets. But they generally cater to foreign aid workers, journalists, and rich Gazans, some of whom are members of a proto-mafia class that has grown rich thanks to control of smuggling tunnels along the Egyptian border. For average residents, they’re out of reach. But Hamas can afford the weapons and concrete for bunkers (they could, but they are broke now) but not a lot left over for hospitals. Same reason the US government maintains huge spending in its military, yet hospitals are still closing down.

The World Food program has said that 400 trucks are needed in Gaza per day, or 2,800 per week, to meet basic nutritional needs. According to Israeli data (PDF), an average of 371 truckloads of food products were delivered per week in 2009 and 310 per week so far in 2010.

Numerous studies show that low-income children and adults are far more likely to be overweight than those of greater means. And the statistical distribution fits a nice, neat curve – as income falls, the rate of obesity rises.

A lot of very poor countries have people living in mud huts with hardly any power in their village, but they have skipped over almost every modern convenience including computers, and went straight to the cell phone. Having some iphones doesn’t really prove anything and I don’t even know where you get that info or if it is true or to what extent the numbers are. Maybe it is the mafia controlling the tunnels that have the iphones and swimming pools. But that does make great fodder for your felatious arguments.

This from wikipedia…On 22 January 2008 after Israel imposed a total closure on all crossings to the Gaza Strip, a group of Hamas demonstrators attempted to force open the door of the Rafah Crossing. They were beaten back by Egyptian police and gunfire erupted. That same night Hamas militants set off 15 explosive charges, demolishing a 200-metre length of the metal border wall. After the resulting Breach of the Gaza-Egypt border, many thousands of Palestinians, with estimates ranging from 200,000 to 700,000, crossed into Egypt to buy goods. Palestinians were seen purchasing food, fuel, cigarettes, shoes, furniture, car parts, and generators.

If it is so good in Gaza, why did hundreds of thousands flood into Egypt just to buy stuff when the hole was blown in the wall?

Bottom line, there are two possibilities. One, Hamas has orchestrated a massive worldwide media campaign and tricked about 50% of the world with their propoganda. Or, the second option, Israel really is opressing the Palestinians. The mainstream media (the media you watch) is controlled by a small wealthy group. They really do have the economic and political pull to use propoganda.

Now, which one makes more sense to have the ability to spread propoganda? Lowly little Hamas, or the massive corporate global media outlets that you partake in?

You’ve not only been duped, but all in the name of oil. How many have died, and how many will die due to the enabling constituents, the yes men, like yourself? How do you sleep at night?

As far as the Hamas taxi, I can’t really find anything on that with a google search. But, if Audi is the main taxi, I would guess because it is well made. If you take a population with all kinds of cars, introduce more oppression and make it hard to get car parts, then the cars start breaking down. Eventually, the best made car is all that is left. That is mostly German cars, by the way, like BMW, Mercedes, Audi. They will run the longest with the least maintenance.

Good point. How about as silly a misnomer as the Israeli “Peace Machine” that attacked the USS Liberty in 1967. The Israelis attacked The Liberty and tried to murder the entire crew, but were foiled only when the Liberty crew were able to repair damaged communication equipment and get a life saving SOS out. American planes were sent out to destroy the Israeli attackers , but were recalled by LBJ himself. Few Americans know about this, especially Kunstler readers, but continue to blindly support the proven Zionist murderers running Israel.

Also think back to the final weeks of the Clinton administration and the frantic efforts to get a deal when Arafat walked out without signing because of the status of Jerusalem and his knowing that he could not sell the deal to “the street” because of that. The Israelis had signed,y and had the Palestinians, the past several years would have seen the Palestinains with a homeland and the prospect of peace. A compromise was not enough, they wanted it all or nothing and now they get Hamas firing rockets from the Strip and continued strife. Eventually a people needs to determine their best interests and give up on the ideology.

The end is not here yet. Wait till someone starts telling the USA that all those laws they have passed recently don’t sit well with Islamic Law, and we have to change them or face death and beheadings in our streets. Then the civil wars over there, will start to look like computer text based games.

I feel like I’m in an odd minority these days — someone who favors both Russia and Israel in their respective crises.

Remember what happens in “Lucifer’s Hammer” when the comet makes landfall? China and the USSR immediately exchange nukes, and the entire Middle East boils over like an overfull pot of macaroni. Once the heavy hand of the American empire is lifted, a lot of places sure do look like Yugoslavia, America included.

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle could imagine a comet striking the earth and its consequences. Turns out the real dangers of the long-term credit cycle are just as dangerous and unavoidable.

“… Really, the entire Middle East, including Israel, has overpopulated itself so severely that the only plausible outcome is the desperate fight over what’s left. A hundred and fifty years ago a mere half million people inhabited the place that is now Israel, and more than 90 percent of them were Arabic. Then came the great Industrial explosion of activity, migrations, and soaring birth rates thanks to fossil fuels. When that phase of history concludes, the population there will go down accordingly.” — JHK

Most unfortunate (to say the very least). You’d think this resource stricture would be a crystal clear predicament that involves EVERYBODY’s interests! The big brain you’mans have all that grey matter to adapt, survive and [over-] proliferate; why can’t they see the wall before they smack their faces into it?

Co-operate and have a chance at a [more] peaceful transition, or play out the string of I-got-mine-screw-youse-guys and all fall down. Why do we always choose the latter… it just doesn’t make sense when there’s not enough left to exploit and survive (without stewing in our own toxins) at the same time.

The only way Israel can be inspired to make peace with the Arabs is an effective worldwide boycott such as the South African one. But with each application of overwhelming military power that possibility becomes less possible as too much Arab blood has been spilled. The alternative is what Israel is doing now: making life so miserable that the Arabs leave of their own accord. This might not happen soon and Jim’s predictions of diminished capability to sustain the current populations could kick in and sort things out in any number of possible ways. This seems to be the way things will go.

Forget about Holland. The Dutch aren’t going to do a goddam thing about that airliner full of their citizens shot down over Ukraine.

The Dutch are post-European and post-Christian, which is a point of pride with their elite and political class. After Van Goghs nephew was stabbed to death on a sidewalk in Amsterdam by some offended Muslim not much happened except a lot a hand wringing and saying of Mea Culpas. (What can we do to make them love us?) So many Muslims have been allowed in the country that at some point soon white Christian Dutch will be in the minority, some form of Shariah Law will be imposed, and the Netherlands will effectively be the 1st Muslim Nation in Western Europe since Philip pushed the Moors out of Spain in the late 15th century.

JHK’s apologetics for Israel are getting a bit old. As a “Geltungsjude” do not accuse me of being anti-semitic. To be sure, Hamas is arguably not acting in the Palestinians best interests. Many, possibly most, Palestinians will agree with that perspective. That said, the Palestinians were already there, and a majority, when the Israel declared itself a nation and took control. There is no justification for that except the justification of force. Sorry, JHK, no amount of clever wordsmithing can alter that. So do yourself a favor and quit the word magic before you lose a lot of readers. Of course the Israel Palestine issue is difficult. A Jewish kid born there has just as much right to be there as a Palestinian kid whose family was there for generations. It’s home to both. And that’s why the only civilized solution to this conflict is political, not military. Unless one wants to continually feed a Moloch.

If you read your history, you would realize that European Jews applied for permission to establish a Jewish state, and the UN voted to allow that. Jews didn’t wake up one day and declare a new state. Of course, you conveniently ignore this fact. I wonder, have you ever been to Israel and spoke to the population there, and experienced their culture?

What difference would it make to go to Israel and talk to the people and experience the culture? I am sure the food is good and the people are nice (as long as they are not killing Palestinians at the moment), but what difference would it make? As far as the history lesson is concerned, how did the idea of European Jews stealing land go over with the Palestinians? How about the Irguun and their work? Please tell more about them.

My point is, if you lived among the Israelis for awhile, maybe you would come to really understand why they do what they do. Maybe then AKlein would change his opinion. As far as changing anything else,

Well old nurse ive been to Gaza many times and my brother married his wife there. In the 30 odd years over which I’ve visited the last decade has been the worst. No one may critise Hamas, they’ve all but expelled the christians, there are no jews there anyway. The Christians are forbidden from open worship, carrying bibles, repairing their churches, but hey this is just inline with other islamic counties. Even the coptic Christians in egypt are under attack. But keep whislting old nurse, it blanks out the screams of the thousands dying weekly at the hands of the religion of peace, that way you can keep blamingnthose dam dirty jews for everything………

The Irgun were terrorists, but not to the extreme of Muslim terrorists. The Irgun warned the British in advance that they were about to blow up the King David Hotel and to evacuate it, but the British ignored the telephone call. I’m not justifying a bombing, but you’ll never get a Muslim terrorist to at least try to avoid casualties.

“The Balfour Declaration may be the most extraordinary document produced by any Government in world history. It took the form of a letter from the Government of His Britannic Majesty King George the Fifth, the Government of the largest empire the world has even known, on which — once upon a time — the sun never set; a letter to an international financier of the banking house of Rothschild who had been made a peer of the realm.

Arthur Koestler wrote that in the letter “one nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.” More than that, the country was still part of the Empire of a fourth, namely Turkey.

It read:

Foreign Office, November 2nd,1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of His Majesty’s Government the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations, which has been submitted to and approved by the Cabinet:

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

I should be grateful if you would bring this Declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

There’s little doubt in my mind that Jews and Palestinians could live together peacefully, as direct neighbors much as Obama supporters and Fox News viewers–with a little grumbling–do now in this country. This a political fight between two mass murdering (and thus illegitimate) governments.

People live in peace until someone tells them its OK to hate their neighbor.

Imagine there’s no Jews, I wonder if you can
No Israel to die for, and no Jerusalem too
Imagine all the bankers, floating in outer space
You may say I’m a murderer, but I’m not the only one
I hope one day you’ll coin me, and the toil will be done

When Israel says it must be recognized as a Jewish State, that does not mean that only Judaism can be recognized and practiced. There are many Christians and Muslims in Israel. What the statement means is that Israel can never become a simple majority run state in which returning Palestinian refugees could vote in an Islamic Sharia government and force all the Jews to convert under the sword. There needs to be some absolute super constitutional, international guarantee that Jews are always welcome in Israel from anywhere.
That being recognized, the most aggravating part of the current Israel policy is the settlements. An Israel as a guaranteed haven but without any settlements beyond its original borders should be the ultimate negotiating point. Jerusalem should be administered as an international holy city with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim trustees. I think this is what will eventually happen after another century.

The Irgun were terrorists, but not to the extreme of Muslim terrorists. The Irgun warned the British in advance that they were about to blow up the King David Hotel and to evacuate it, but the British ignored the telephone call. I’m not justifying a bombing, but you’ll never get a Muslim terrorist to at least try to avoid casualties.

Don’t forget that many of Israel’s neighbors suddenly attacked and tried to destroy it in 1967. After they lost that war, the Arabs wanted their land back. “Uh, really?” said the Israelis. “We won it fair and square and we’re not giving it back”.

I don’t think it’s smart of Israel to keep on building new settlements, given the current world opinion, but I think they are justified. The age-old saying that to the victor belongs the spoils applies here. Israel was not the aggressor when they got the land in 1967.

Bravo, well said. Palestine is sword land and it belongs to the strong. Let us cut off all aid to both sides and see who is the strongest. We took this continent by ourselves. The Jews took Palestine with massive amounts of help and then turned on their friends.

Actually, we brits started you off, you needed the french to shake us off, you nearly lost it again in 1812 when you pooped yourselves when our current war with france ended and the number of British troops ramped up. In the lousiana purchase and Alaska you paid for land conquered by others. The rest was taken by an invasion of europeans. You almost eradicated the natives in a campaign that made the Empire look positively humanitarian then housed them in economic concentration camps not even allowing them to vote in their own country until the 1920s. In the meantime you managed to kill 600,000 of your own countrymen in a war just to decide it wasn’t nice to buy and sell people like cattle. Something the nasty old Empire made law 30 years previous with a simple act of parliament.
After all that my grandparents were shocked in WW2 that you segregated your troops and that blacks had rules restrictions on where they could eat, sleep, drink from, hell even what seat they could have on the bus! The army of the Empire drew troops from every part and yes we actually trusted them with guns. 2.5 million Indians served with Sikh rehiments achieving much distinction not to mention the Gurkhas who still serve in the British army.
Unlike other nations the US had to be paid in WW2, in gold or territory until by chance Hitler declared war on you.
Even then that famous jew hater Henry Ford wanted to supply both sides making a profit, undoubtedly a hero of yours.
The US has turned, betrayed its friends so many times with such an appalling record on minority rights that your comment had us rolling in the aisles over here.

In this is an interesting synopsis. . . You *do* realize of course that Americans are rarely taught history in reasonably frank manner – they have that in common with many other nations.

It’s good of you to attempt to bring their beliefs into alignment with what the rest of the world knows, just don’t expect much in the way of thanks… They’re peering at the sky from the bottom of a very deep well, you see.

Our own Declaration of Independence, approved by 18th century enlightened Americans, states that everyone has unalienable rights including the right to exist. Arab countries deny that right to Israel. To me, the solution to all the problems there derive from the Islamic world’s refusal to diplomatically recognize the state of Israel. It’s not about the oil for the Muslims, it’s about the 4,000 year old enmity between Arab and Jew.

If all the Arab nations recognized Israel’s right to exist, most of the turmoil would end. It is a really easy solution with an impossible path to implementation. I’m tired of this whole issue, as the anti-Jewish denizens of America (AJDOA) will never change their feelings about Jews, so why bother to further bat this issue around?

BY THE WAY, very well done commentary, Jim. You’ve expressed my opinions exactly.

Ah, the repetition of Hasbara. Sure. And if the Native Americans had simply recognized the USA’s right to exist, everything would have been OK for them.

That makes perfect sense.

Of course you agree with Jim. You are Ubermenschen and the Palestinians are Untermenschen. As with the Native American Untermenschen long ago, how could the Palestinians not have realized that the land they were living on for centuries was yours, even before you got there?

Promised to you, as was Manifest Destiny USA, by The Big Bearded White Guy in the Sky.

Which is as good an excuse as any to slaughter people and steal their stuff.

Filthy Untermeschen. They deserve what they get, no?

What self-respecting Ubermenschen could not fail to see the righteousness in the strong slaughtering the weak and stealing their stuff, so long as it’s Your Team doing it?

You keep dreaming that I am an anti-semite and AKlein is a self-hating Jew. So are all Israel’s critics, each and every one.

AJDOA???? Are you kidding? Are Noam Chomsky’s views on Israel anti-Jewish even though he’s Jewish? Or is he a “self hater” like all the other Jews who condemn Israel? When supporters of Israeli have nothing left to defend the murder of Palestinians by the IDF they cry Anti-Semitism. Next you’ll use the H word to justify Israel’s action.

I mean that in the bible, Abraham’s wife, Sara, was barren and allowed Abraham to sleep with a fertile woman who bore him a son. Later, Sara miraculously got pregnant and bore Abraham a son as well. Since Sara and Abraham were married, their son was the legitimate heir. A&S kicked the other woman and her son out of the tent for good. According to legend, that mother and son founded a line that became “the Arabs”. Arabs never forgot it.

No historic evidence of King David’s Empire, no historical evidence of King Solomon’s Palace or Temple, after at least a century of archeological digging.

If it makes you feel any better, no historical evidence for most of the New Testament, as well.

“The Arabs never forgot it.”

It not often one sees a statement so meritless, there’s nothing to say except, “Rubbish!” but you managed to find one.

I could go on and on, but let me conclude the disingenuous dishonesty that exemplifies the Zionist movement, which is a population dominated by atheists and agnostics, citing the Bible to justify oppression, theft and murder.

Mika, an avowed atheist, if I recall, did that shamelessly all the time and I seem to recall as well your own stated agnosticism.

(except when it’s time to justify beating the crap out of weaker people and stealing their land and possessions)

Surah 98:6 – Verily, those who disbelieve (in the religion of Islâm, the Qur’ân and Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)) from among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) and Al-Mushrikûn will abide in the Fire of Hell. They are the worst of creatures.Surah 98:7 – Verily, those who believe [in the Oneness of Allâh, and in His Messenger Muhammad (Peace be upon him)) including all obligations ordered by Islâm] and do righteous good deeds, they are the best of creatures.Surah 3:85 – If anyone desires a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted.Surah 9:5 – Kill non-Muslims wherever you find them. Ambush, seize, and capture them. If they convert to Islam and pray and contribute to the cause of Islam, let them go.Surah 48:16 – Non-Muslims must convert to Islam or they will be killed………….. the religion of peace, sigh. Its all about land, sigh………

“JHK’s apologetics for Israel are getting a bit old. As a “Geltungsjude” do not accuse me of being anti-semitic.”

============================================

They certainly are. “War machine…?”

The idea the Palseinians “painted themselves into a corner” in Gaza?

Laughable. Like the idea that the idea, which no one would dare to state for it’s own laughablity, that the Native Americans, “painted themselves into a corner” inside various reservations during the final half of the 19th Century.

Ahem…their lands were stolen and they were bloodily “painted” into said corner by the guns of their Oppressors, then as now.

Finally, the appropriate Hasbara Propaganda Term (TM) for you, Al, in order to marginalize and stigmatize you, signalling that no one should listen to a word you say, oh wild-eyed Conpiracy Theorist, is “Self-Hating Jew”.

“We use our rockets to protect our women and children; they [Hamas] use their women and children to protect their rockets.” This is what medieval rhetoricians named a “chiasmus.” Another famous example is Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you ….” The beauty of a chiasmus is that its rhetorical effectiveness and its truth value are completely unrelated.
-Phut

Long ago I read the book “To Be an Arab in Palestine” written by a Palestinian about how newly found Israel seized Palestinian land and villages and bulldozed them so progressive Jews moving into Kibbutz could believe the myth that Palestine was some empty desert. The story has continued for decades up to the killing of the American Rachel Corrie by Israeli bulldozers in 2003.
See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Corrie

Why is Israel’s sole possession of nuclear weapons in the Mideast never raised as an issue nor the fact that the US has cast more veto’s and votes solely with Israel than any other UN member?

War is not the answer on either side, it was tragic to me that after the First Intifada which was almost solely nonviolent that the 2nd Intifada began using violence by lightly armed Palestinians against a nuclear armed Israel provided billions in advanced military weapons by our US tax dollars. How does it make any sense to arm Israel AND Egypt and Saudi Arabia? To hand out 20,000 rocket launchers to Libya rebels in the illegal US/NATO war to overturn Ghaddaffy? The only answer is that the US merchants of death make billions of dollars on arming all sides an expense we cannot afford in the age of Peak Oil and Climate Change!

Egypt is the illustrative case of the stupidity of wasting billions on War as we face Peak Oil. Egypt of course as we all know here has gone from being an oil exporter to oil importer which was one of the major causes of rising food prices, social tensions and the Arab Spring revolt. For years the US courtesy of Americans’ tax dollars gave $5 Billion per year to Egypt for the Peace Accord. But this money went primarily to military aid, either for useless high tech weapons for Boeing’s and the Merchants of Death’s profits or some skimmed by the military elite into their own pockets. Imagine if this had gone instead to investing in solar thermal in the desert, solar PV, Green Transit instead of the idiotic Auto Addicted beltway around Cairo solely for the car-owning upper middle class/rich belt just before the crash. Note that despite the obvious use of some of these weapons to repress the people’s uprising in the Arab Spring that Hillary Clinton, at the behest of Boeing resumed military aid to Egypt back in 2013 so Boeing could continue to reap their profits as Merchants of Death.

We cannot continue this sort of policy anymore – the US wastes $1 Trillion per year on endless Wars which have been an abject failure in terms of helping mankind or even “winning” Wars like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya etc…

The US elite pretends they have no control over Israel but shutoff their $7 Billion a year subsidy and they would comply in a heartbeat with actual peace. At this point though the 2- State solution may be defunct and it may have to go back to a Secular state of all of Israel/Palestine…

I have many Jewish friends who have understood the futility and major mistakes of Israel’s increasing militarization and fascism for decades. What is happening now is for the first time I am actually hearing sympathetic stories of the actual victims of Israel’s attacks rather than just stories of Israeli victims.

War is not the answer and may be the final “crash boom” of all civilization after all if this madness continues…

“The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself… Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable…”
~ H.L. Mencken

“Individuals must re-establish a sense of deep connection and bondedness to the whole (in this case the planet)… It is especially important that people build direct human connections around the globe. Since the nation-states are today’s bullies, we can not rebuild the peace of the tribe unless we build a global community that stands independent of these nations, as William Ellis argues so well in the Summer 1983 issue of IN CONTEXT. It is also essential that these connections be ‘real’, based on meaningful ties of economics and common personal interest, and not just a technique for peace.

Our societies need to decentralize to remove crucial pressure points. We need to replace brittle systems of hierarchical power with resilient systems of ‘network semi-dependence.’ ” ~ Robert Gilman

“Those of us who belong to the permaculture family have cause to be proud, but not complacent. Work has scarely begun, but we have a great team of people which increases in numbers daily. To empower the powerless and create ‘a million villages’ to replace nation-states is the only safe future for the preservation of the biosphere. Let interdependence and personal responsibility be our aims.” ~ Bill Mollison, from Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual, second ed.

It seems the only question that need be asked anytime there is a world event outside these borders is the last one that Mr. K asked in this column. Why does the USA have any business being involved in it?

Given that at least three new full generations of Israelis grew up on this land after Great Britain’s last sanctioned mass relocation of European jews to Palestine – it is, indeed, impossible to resolve this conflict fairly to both sides.

The new Israeli generations do not know any better, this is their land now – where are they to go? But this does not change the fact that Palestinians got their land taken away from them – and there are people who are still alive who might remember when the last wave happened, in the recent history. If we start talking centuries ago, then Crimea should go to Turkey and North America to native Indians, and Texas to Mexico. No one seems to be looking that far back, we all speak in terms of recent history, which can be defined as the last 50-60 years.

If I were living in Israel now, I would start preparations and get ready to emigrate from the country. It is only a matter of time before things become really terrible for them, as if they are not bad already. Suppose we can count on the Islamic fractions not to be able to agree and organize themselves for a while (hopefully) – but it is abundantly clear that ISIS is not going away and eventually they will take over the whole region and MAKE their religious brothers organize (examples in recent history: bolsheviks in Russia who were originally a “punk” minority party; Nazi party in Germany, originally a “punk” minority). And if in parallel US petro-dollar gets abandoned by the international community (a process that has already began), Israel will not be able to receive over $3B annual support from the States while the European jews are not going to support them in the same way. In addition, of course, there is the underlying peak oil conundrum that would break backs of everyone, but top it off with the global financial crisis and the already-under-way economic collapse and the fact that Israel does not have its own natural resources in any meaningful quantities – the conclusion is: however you look at it, Israel does not have a bright future at all. In fact, Israel’s situation is much worse than any other country.

Regarding the Malaysian plane – it was shot over Ukraine, it is the responsibility of the Ukrainian government to ensure safety of passenger airlines that fly over its territory. Their traffic air controllers should have issued no-fly warnings over territories where military actions are taking place. After they fact – they should take full responsibility and ensure that satellite data from several geographical sources get analyzed and reported to international investigators. They are doing none of it.

One detail I find strange..how come no one takes notice that there were 100 AIDS scientists on board that plane. This is…a little suspicious to me. There was a strong rumour on the net that this virus was originally manufactured in the US labs, and now, when US is speedily losing its influence and power, who knows what those scientists were going to report. This is a wild speculation, totally unfounded, but I somehow do not think this is just a coincidence. What a good excuse it would be to get rid off all those scientists in case there were some disturbing reports and then use this incident to make Ukraine and Russia fight with each other even harder, because otherwise Putin is just too much of a smart ass, he manages to avoid all the typical provocations.

I am not claiming this suggestion to be valid in any way (it was just a thought) but I do find it strange that no one says anything about those 100 scientists.

“There was a strong rumour on the net that this virus was originally manufactured in the US labs, and now, when US is speedily losing its influence and power, who knows what those scientists were going to report. This is a wild speculation”

A wild speculation that was ignored by the American press but one which has been spread around the world by foreign news agencies for years. That AIDS was developed in American Labs is regarded as true throughout much of the rest of the world. It is far more than a ‘net rumor’ and foreign wing nuts embrace it.

The story goes that gay servicemen caught the virus in Africa were they were spreading it around and brought it back to the US.

“If I were living in Israel now, I would start preparations and get ready to emigrate from the country. It is only a matter of time before things become really terrible for them, as if they are not bad already. ”

Living in Israel through rocket attacks isn’t a bed of roses but don’t underestimate its strength or overestimate its enemies strength. As someone who lived there for over 20 years and has most of his close family living there, I can tell you firsthand that the Jewish state is here to stay post-cheap oil and post $3b from the USA. What determines the strength of a nation is its social cohesion, and determination to fend off threats and continue to develop an advanced economy. Today, 20,000 (sic twenty thousand) people attended the funeral of Sean Carmeli, a US-born volunteer to IDF killed in Gaza, after a call went out on social networks to make sure he isn’t ignored. Do you see that happening anywhere else?

I’m not a messianic Jew or even a supporter of the settlement movement. I’d like to see a political settlement with our Palestinian cousins, most of whom presumably want to live in peace. But I’m also pretty tired of ignorant Americans who have raised a generation of ignorant drug addicts, preaching to me as a Jew that I shouldn’t dare live in my homeland or else.

Israel may not say outright that it would like the Palestinians to disappear, but they certainly make it clear by their actions that that is what they would like to have happen. The Palestinians are pushed into smaller and smaller spaces week by week, and are living in conditions that nobody should have to tolerate. No wonder they are so frustrated that they are lobbing rockets into Israel. The UN has repeatedly told Israel to stop building illegal settlements and they have refused to do so, in fact they continue to build more and more of them.

The question of why any commercial airline is routing planes over a war zone – I saw formerly local reporter Miles O’Brien address that on some PBS show. He’s a pilot himself. He says that other airlines have started diverting around the Ukraine, such as Air France, but Malaysian Airlines or whatever the name is was flying 1,000 feet above the no-fly zone. Miles said pilots don’t like to do that, because it gives them no margin should they have to descend, and passengers are unaware of the flight plan when they board the plane. Why do it? A slightly longer route equals more time in the air, which equals more cost. It seems that jet fuel is very expensive, which relates back to Mr. Kunstler’s central theme.
The Left does have pets. I don’t understand why people like that are so quick to take up a culture in which women have the same status as we give to dairy cows in this country.

Nope. Not exaggerating. “Their women”?
Where did I say anything about condoning killing anybody? I was merely commenting on the strangeness of some people who consider themselves Leftists, being so supportive of a culture where the women do not enjoy the same human freedoms that the Leftist women enjoy for themselves. Where do you find justification for killing in that? I support human rights, and that bothers you?
If you want a fight, go to Ukraine or Gaza. I didn’t come here for that. I find Mr. Kunstler’s point of view interesting, that’s all. You apparently come here to pick fights, which makes you a troll.

The Left is against the West and Islam is against the West. So they are friends. It really is too bizarre since the two outlooks on life couldn’t be more different. Yet it is the case. Liberals are always tending towards being traitors and Leftists are overt traitors to their race, culture, nation, and civilization.

Does anyone see it as the least bit suspicious that on very day of the massive “incursion” of the Israelis into Gaza a plane is “shot down” in Ukraine? Coincidence?

I absolutely agree that the US should stay out of most of the messes it’s involved in- and that includes the coup we perpetrated in Ukraine. This Malaysian airline event has the bloody fingerprints of the US-backed Ukrainian government all over it- not that we will ever get the truth from the presstitutes in this country- we’re still being lied to about the events of 9/11 nearly 13 years after the fact.

Suspicious, yes, but speculating on it without facts is a waste of energy and is illogical.

Mr. Darling posted a link to a German Paper yesterday which puts forward the theory the plane was shot down by Ukraine jets. The author sees damage on the wings that indicates air to air fire and not a surface to air missile.

Damage which indicates fire was directed at the cockpit.

You might find it at the end of last weeks scroll if Homeland Security hasn’t sanitized the scroll yet. You will have to translate the article from German but Mr. Darling’s link should do it for you. Me, I had to do it myself, but that was due to an incompatible browser.

Damage to the cockpit. Lol.
First off air to air missiles are almost alwayys heat seeking so would have been targeting the engines and 20mm cannon fire would be rather distinctive and you would have to be totally asinine to target the cockpit when you have much larger more effective targets, ie engines. The Buk missile system however uses a 70kg framentation warhead. It is designed to bring down the largest bombers. Its warhead is a directed cone charge which detonates some 20 metres from the target and literally shreds it. There is little doubt other than in the minds of conspiracy loons what hit it!

But twice my comment has been deleted and now I’ll have to post it on my own website; with elaboration; and before the day is out. If JHK deleted he should write to me and explain. If ‘they’ have deleted it I expect I’ll receive no explanation.

OK, how about we get back to the JHK premise that we urgently need to change our living arrangement right here in the US of A? Incidentally, they need to do the same thing in Israel/Palestine/Levant or whatever you want to call it. What are we going to do? Fight endlessly over diminishing resources until all sides are so worn out that perdition wins? Worldwide we are at a resource crossroads that is beyond differences; all differences become petty with the kind of future we face. Whether we like it or not, if we are to survive, we will be forced to evolve. It’s just that serious. Seems to me, anyway.

no, no, not silly. I see film of these so called soldiers of Palestine marching around bravely in Gaza, flourishing their RPGs and Kalishnikov rifles. Is it all for show? Can they really fight? Can they take on a modern western Army like Israel’s. If not, maybe they should stop lobbing missiles into Israeli townships. The penalty for that is getting your ass kicked.

Yeah right. Towel heads like the Afghans. Occupied many times, but never conquered. Sure the Russians or Americans might control the cities – or seem to, but how about the rest of it? I only hope we fight half as bravely as they do when the war starts here.

Mao: When the enemy attacks, I retreat. When he retreats, I attack. When he is stable, I harass.

Maybe if the Palestinians were shooting down airliners full of European tourists and scientists, instead of lobbing rockets into Israeli melon farms, JHK would be less contemptuous of them. Seems like Russian terrorism gets a lot more respect than Palestinian terrorism (if only for being more lethal).

JHK brings a lot of wisdom to the debates over land use, finance and energy policy. But when he wanders off those topics, the learning curve takes a nose-dive. Military affairs? Gay marriage? Please … don’t.

I would agree. I always enjoyed the oil and environment posts as they had a message worth spreading

The USA is a world power. Its power is projected in different ways. James says ‘what business is it of the USA to get involved over a downed flight of a foreign airline that originated in the Netherlands and was carrying passengers overwhelmingly of Dutch nationality?’ I think an answer to that might be ‘as much business as it does in other ventures overseas!’ There are positives and negatives. Including for example aid budgets and arms supply which can often cause power balance issues elsewhere in the world

I would really like some more revealing investigative journalism on the original topic, rather than wasting precious oil on troubled waters

Since when are ethnic groups entitled to their own private territory. I thought we were supposed to intermingle with each other and turn our nations into administrative districts? Please publish a complete list of ethnic groups who are not supposed to “cease to exist”. I am myself partial to that idea and jews ranks pretty high on the list of groups whom I would grant that privilege. Definitely higher than #7.

Whites are at the top of the Leftist list of those who have to disappear. Jews and Leftists both agree on that. But suddenly the Left started considering the Jews White. It really is too rich. Hitler predicted that their gentile zombies would turn on them.

Sometimes I think the best solution for the Israeli/Palestinian mess is for the U.S. to pick the state with the highest percentage of federally owned land and offer it to both sides. Create your own country here. It’s a smarter move for the Israelis–we have more in common with them–but it should be offered to both. The costs of buying up the rest of land from private landowners would cost less than what we spend to protect Israel (and who knows, many of those private landowners might want to stay under the new government).

Kunstler’s correct about water and oil revenue shortages creating a fight among the expanded populations. But, more near term Ron Paul makes a salient point: the bankruptcy of the U.S. government is Israel’s greatest threat. Auntie Janet at the Fed doesn’t even have to destroy the currency, she merely has to let interest rates rise to historically normal rates (to save the Fed) and there will be a scramble to cut federal spending everywhere. It costs a whole lot to maintain a racially pure country–the Nazis learned this–and without someone else to pay the bills, Israel vibrant economy doesn’t generate enough income to do it.

A lot of people here in Miami donated money back when to help establish Israel. I can’t imagine the current country is what they envisioned.

Years ago I imagined some part of Nevada could be changed into a copy of the Holy Land and the Palestinians moved over here. The total number of Palestinians not being so large that we could not absorb them. The total number in Gaza is about 1.8 million. The population in the West Bank is comparable, but I’d have to look it up to be sure.

I in no way advocate this position. It was a pipe-dream stimulated by the fact that it would have been far far cheaper to move all the Palestinians over here years ago than to unquestionably support and finance the Israeli side of the mid-east cat-fight ad nauseam as has been done.

Here’s a thought for all you CFNers. Given the reality in the 21st century – a) We are coming to the end of the cheap energy era, and b) we have the capacity to blow ourselves up out of existence, and c) the effectiveness of asymmetric warfare to disrupt – it would seem that all military victories are ultimately (if not immediately) Pyrrhic. Since this week’s blog is centered largely on the Israeli/Palestinian potlatch, you may want to consider what either an Israeli or Palestinian “victory” would actually yield.

Could it be because AKlein is able to see both sides of an issue and is not blinded by narrow self-interest?

Dmitri Orlov has made the point that fighting wars to obtain resources is madness as war consumes incredible resources. That in a resource war there is not much difference between obtaining victory or experiencing defeat. Both are incredibly costly and the EROEI for any resource war is almost certainly going to be negative.

Which is perhaps one reason empires fall. Their victories become Pyrrhic.

To be technically correct EROEI can’t actually become negative but it can become less than one. If EROEI becomes less than one then more energy is being expended to obtain energy than what is obtained as a result of the effort.

“Dmitri Orlov has made the point that fighting wars to obtain resources is madness as war consumes incredible resources. That in a resource war there is not much difference between obtaining victory or experiencing defeat.”-KDog.

“Dmitri Orlov has made the point that fighting wars to obtain resources is madness as war consumes incredible resources…” ~ KDog.

A better reason seems to be that it is just plain wrong.

Some people have command of incredible resources and the pawns and slaves to extract and fight for them, so what do they care?
Maybe it’s because they don’t.
And I’ve been hearing word of the sociopathic and/or psychopathic nature of some seeking, and in, ‘power’.

“The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other – instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.” ~ Edward Abbey

WOW, JHK – you really lit up your corner of the internet this week!
Some absolutely excellent commentary, too. Newworld’s idea was one I’d never heard – what if all 2,000,000 Gazans just stopped fighting and asked for Israeli privileges AND Israeli passports. Seems like an OK idea to me. Who would be opposed?
Wait. What?

And the funny thing is – almost every single poster has some idea of merit or at least worthy of discussion. The problems are at the fringes – and the most troublesome fringe is the one that says any criticism of Israel is automatically criticism of all Jews, and therefore anti-semitic. Especially since NO ONE on this board is going all PLO “Death to Israel.” No one at all.

Whatever happened to the PLO, anyway?
And wasn’t Hamas supported by the Israeli govt. at one time???

=====================

And don’t forget Ukraine!
Is Ukraine a smokescreen for Israel?
Is Israel a smokescreen for Ukraine?
Are both a smokescreen for the slow dwindling of Western Civilization and American force projection?

Sometimes, don’t you wish we could bring back the cold war, the Russian Evil Empire (tm R. Reagan) and the stable balance of world hegemonic power. Be careful what you wish for, right?

Thanks for the week’s work! And thanks for the comment space.
This stuff all needs to be aired out in public.

The Romans so hated the Jews that they scattered them to the wind. It was not the first time. They also obliterated the Carthaginians. Caesar once annihilated 400,000 Germans for a minor incursion into Roman territory. People are destroyed all the time. Genocide is common place. Look at the American Indian. Nobody here in America saying we should give America back to them. Certainly no one in the UN saying that. The Jews need to get over themselves. Terrible things have happened to countless races and religions. They are not special in that regard.

Well said. But remember the Zealots used to come up behind Roman sentries and stab them in the back. Also they got the idea into their heads that they could actually win. Some kind of Messianic idea. They started killing Greeks in Alexandria and also civilians in Cypress etc. They started that war. Of course they were occupied and had the moral right to rebel but they went far beyond that into atrocities against civilians. Read Gibbon.

Well, that ought to teach me to comment without reading through all the comments first. Perhaps a couple of commenters are shouting “death to Israel,” a la Hamas, the PLO, et al.

“Imagine there’s no Jews, I wonder if you can
No Israel to die for, and no Jerusalem too
Imagine all the bankers, floating in outer space
You may say I’m a murderer, but I’m not the only one”
– sea world paraphrases Paul (McCartney, not ‘of Tarsus’) –

“The other hot zone in the world right now, Ukraine, got hotter the past week when somebody or some faction shot down a commercial Malaysian airliner. “The question that no news organ has so far raised: why are any commercial airlines routing their planes over a war zone? Especially a war zone where other airplanes have been shot down recently. Just how dumb has the human race become?”

Actually, this question was asked by a major news organization on July 17: “Why Was Malaysia Airlines MH17 Flying Over Ukraine? Time, Money”:

“This was a very commonly used route and passenger jets fly at high altitudes over many of the world’s hotspots all the time,” said Norman Shanks, professor of aviation security at Britain’s Coventry University. “They chose the most direct and economic flight route possible, which keeps their fuel costs down and is something we expect as customers. They were no different from any other international airline.”

Yes the question has been asked repeatedly. Why JHK didn’t recognize that fact is a bit strange. I think the question as to why MH15 took the exact flight path it did needs to be looked into very deeply. Other jets were passing well to the south that day, according to an article last week at Zero Hedge. I hope the flight data recorders can be examined honestly.

Once I was with Mrs. Dog and we were flying from Minneapolis to Seattle. We were over Montana and I was listening to the air traffic control which the pilot had graciously provided on one of the audio channels. Suddenly I heard Northwest flight XXX (whatever it was) climb 2000 feet over the radio. Instantly I was pushed hard back into my chair as the plane rose. As soon as it levelled off I looked out the window. Another jet putted by in the opposite direction spewing a cone of black shimmering hot exhaust out its tail jet as it passed by. It reminded me of looking at a lawnmower from a second story window as it was pushed by; surreal. I’ll never understand why it all seemed to happen in such slow motion. The passing speeds must have been over a thousand miles an hour. The distance had to have been just right for me to take it all in, it happened.

Then a matching command come over the radio. Northwest flight XXX drop 2000 feet. Instantly butterflies were in my stomach as we dropped, without delay.

When the plane landed the pilot and entire flight crew were at the door nervously thanking everyone for flying on their plane, wishing them well with a sincerity that I’ve never seen in my life. I looked at the pilot and gave him all the right grins, shakes and moves to let him know:

Dude I know exactly what happened and you did a great job!

There are many questions as to why MH17 was exactly where it was that day. Pilots follow orders, pronto, as they should. I hope truth not lies, answers the questions.

I posted this Sunday, late pm. A response to Asoka vapid Obama-as-great-leader screed. Minor edit of repeated words. :

Not sure why the partisan Obama worship here in the midst of such degradation, but I guess O needs whatever help he can get these days.

I read the Reuters and Tass accounts of the telephone call and it does not appear that Russia was somehow caving to the wise and just American position, skillfully advanced. Quite the contrary it appears that Russia is as interested in an impartial investigation as say, the Dutch. Hence the employment of the ICAO, of which Russian AND Ukraine are members. And the agreement that everything including flight data recorders should be made available.

This is in stark contrast with the previous Malaysian Airline disaster where these tapes were immediately made available. Any form of “taping” whether analogue or digital can be altered and if the ZeroHedge reporting is correct that leads one to suspect the Ukrainians may have something to hide. That the flight took an unusual, perhaps even singular path has been reported by every source. It leads one to wonder who would benefit from having a flight full of Dutch and East Asians shot down.

Obviously no benefit confers to Putin. He has lost at least a knight and bishop and is in serious jeopardy. The most benefit confers to the forces defending the petrodollar status quo. The Western Europeans who have been less than enthusiastic about the sanctions are now confronted with an atrocity of sufficient magnitude to alter their behavior toward the emerging Eurasian trade zone. This could hinder the BRICS movement to create an alternative reserve currency. Dutch…. East Asians. Maybe not the Dutch so much (they are still in the Western sphere) but certainly the non-Chinese Asians must be having second thoughts about the changing tableau and who their future partners may be.

So given what is known now it looks like the rebels shot it down, possibly with technical assistance provided by Russia, believing it was Ukrainian based on the flight path which was directed by Ukrainian air traffic control. The rebels and their enablers took the bait.

OK. Today the Russians come out swinging with 10 questions for the West. Maybe they didn’t support the rebels, and maybe Ukraine is solely responsible. Ukraine has everything to gain by framing Russia but all sides are so stupid, clumsy and amoral that who knows? Fact is it’s atrocious and Putin is uncharacteristically off balance, like Bush finally getting around to Katrina.
It may not be possible to trust any electronic “evidence” from any source. We have entered a new dark age.

Not sure why the partisan Obama worship here in the midst of such degradation, but I guess O needs whatever help he can get these days.”-FL Power.

Hmm, I’m not sure what how you mean that. Mr. O has done a great job, hasn’t he?

“Obama’s presidency has been a massive success. The bailouts were the largest upward transfer of wealth in world history. Not single bankster executive has been prosecuted, let alone jailed, and the banks are bigger than ever. Unemployment has been kept high and hysteresis has set in. Occupy was smashed. The President can now execute US citizens without due process. The government has openly became a surveillance state, on the scale of the Stasi. And lots of faraway brown people got blown to pink mist. Now, to be fair, Obama built on the solid foundations Bush laid. But what’s not to like?”- Lambert Strether…

It all sounds like BS to me, when push(low oil supply) comes to shove (famine) might has right, or are we going to play PC and roll over and play dead. The sooner this apocalyptic play gets underway the better. It must be a foregone conclusion that the world needs to shed population to survive. This is just one of many curtain raisers to the main event.

$1 billion to be invested:
In a significant political and economic development, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Jan. 23 with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting came as a prerequisite to officially sign an investment agreement aiming to develop the Gaza offshore gas field in the Mediterranean Sea. It is only logical to assume that this step will raise the ire of Israel. The latter does not appreciate the role Russia plays in the region, especially since Israel has never come to an agreement with Russia.

Dear James,
After 10+ years of reading your blog and books I finally reached the end of the road with you after today’s post. It’s a lazy, cynical analysis that leaves a bad taste in the mouth – particularly after just hearing the the death toll in Gaza has now passed 550 – the majority of whom are women and children. I think you are loosing the edge you once had. I assume that it perhaps gets a little tiresome to have committed to this weekly post – especially when you so often repeat the same by now rather tired perspective on US and world affairs. I will continue to dip in to the blog but I’ll no longer look forward to it the way I once did. Perhaps it’s time to consider retiring tis particular weekly routine and find a different perspective on things.
With thanks for much in the past and best wishes for your health and future well being.
Nick

I share your sentiments. When people are dying we don’t need lazy and cynical. The insensitivity that has been shown from one who professes to be concerned about America’s future is a bitter taste indeed.

Nick, I agree with what you’ve written. I’ve been a fan of JHK’s writing since that excerpt of the Long Emergency was published in Rolling Stone magazine back in 2005. He’s always been insightful and very funny… But the cognitive decline is readily apparent. It’s embarrassing to see. It’s very possible he’ll undermine his own work and legacy as he continues to post on matters he apparently has minimal knowledge of. It’s sad and a bit pathetic.

The other hot zone in the world right now, Ukraine, got hotter the past week when somebody or some faction shot down a commercial Malaysian airliner. The question that no news organ has so far raised: why are any commercial airlines routing their planes over a war zone? Especially a war zone where other airplanes have been shot down recently. Just how dumb has the human race become?

That’s not true, CNN‘s MIles O’Brien has been emphatic about this. It is a good question to answer going forward, but for now, the more important question is what happened to the plane. There’s been lots of speculation and accusations from all sides in this militant political debate over Ukraine, but very little valuable information as it relates to the fate of this MA Flight 17. Also, going forward, if your thesis about the Long Collapse pans out, eventually the entire globe will be a war zone, so is that the point at which the planes get grounded, or do the dolts just take their chances and engage in blessings before and after each flight — if there is an after? This mess makes me sick.

“Also, going forward, if your thesis about the Long Collapse pans out, eventually the entire globe will be a war zone, so is that the point at which the planes get grounded, or do the dolts just take their chances and engage in blessings before and after each flight — if there is an after?”-ColdNHolefield.

“JHK, I like you better when you stick to topics like the coming American wasteland, clown pants, and such.”
– hineshammer, with a stronger paraphrase by nickS and k9 –

I disagree, guys. I see something to admire when any Jew anywhere, especially in America, manages to examine any negative thing about Israel. And JHK’s peak oil reminder, that the entire Middle East will be thinly populated desert eventually – is well worth the price of today’s CFN admission ticket.

Besides which, JHK has a good eye for most other types of media manipulations. Consider the following:

“The New York Times reported that street protests against Israel had broken out in London and Paris, giving the impression that some broad national sentiment was being expressed when, in fact, the protesters were from the large Muslim communities that these nations had foolishly invited to immigrate there.” – jhk –

Yeppers – Western Civilization, including Israel, has made a huge mistake. Israel’s mistake was to move into hostile territory without a plan to remove the hostile elements. Western Europe, and to a lesser extent the US, is allowing hostile elements to immigrate right into the heart of their culture and physical geography.

Western Civilization must have believed that sufficient prosperity and power would solve conflict and end hostility forever. It worked (kinda sorta) when the USSR and the US dominated the globe and forced regional ethnic hostilities to (again, kinda sorta) be submerged under dictatorships of various stripes.

Those days are gone. And now Western Civilization depends on lots and lots of oil to keep the lights on and the food trucks running – and this keeps the lid on some unpleasant things that simmer constantly. Decline of prosperity will bring the simmer to a full boil, sooner or later.

“There are many questions as to why MH17 was exactly where it was that day. Pilots follow orders, pronto, as they should. I hope truth not lies, answers the questions.” – kdog –

Very good points. I would like to hear the air traffic control tapes and the cockpit voice recorder. Especially – were there any other aircraft in the area that the BUK unit might have been targeting. Or is it possible that this flight was deliberately “teed up” for what happened?

But – do you really think the truth will be allowed out, if it’s anything other than a series of mistakes in a war zone?

I’m surprised Putin and the Russians aren’t playing Victoria Nuland and the 5 billion $ and “fuck the EU!” – constantly.

All sides seem to be taking a pretty low profile, compared to what could be happening, IMO.

I also find fascinating the idea that the liberal polity in the USA supports this idea of “diversity”. Well, that very idea is destroying Europe from the inside out. They’ve allowed a destabilizing number of Moslems to become permanent residents. Yet somehow Britain, for example, has enacted all these hate crime laws which make any anti-Islamic public utterance a crime even if it is prosaically accurate.

The USA will never have the same degree of incendiary violence from Mexicans that Europe has and will have with Moslems who want a Caliphate in Brussels. However, the idealogies are similar i.e., a particularly broken form of liberalism which exemplifies “the road to hell was paved with good intentions”. Nancy Pelosi was down there greeting border-crossers as if she was having a tea social.

What has the net result of Mexican immigration been for the USA? The lower- and lower-middle classes of American-born people are being aced out of every conceivable restaurant job, light construction job, many caretaking jobs, etc.. Of course, many low-level medical jobs like hospice and caretaking are being occupied by new Asians.

Fred on Everything is right on a lot of things but methinks his bias in favorite of Mexicans ’cause his main squeeze is one colors his thinking in a bad way. Gang activity in Western US cities is predominantly Mexican unless one is talking about Los Angeles. Otherwise, it is overwhelmingly Mexican. Gee, whatever could we do without that cultural addition?

“The Palestinians have got the war they asked for and they are trying to manipulate world opinion by mingling their war machine in the heart of their population center of Gaza City. Their choice.”

When has this NOT been the case? For thousands of years its been street & village fighting in desert settlements – so what’s different now?
Neither combatant lines up in polite military formations and expose themselves and their hardware to the enemy… that’s what the tunnels are all about.

Israelis have their weapons hidden among civilian populations too – its a way of life and skirmish there and there’s no changing that anytime soon.

A narrowing of Palestinian prerogative, control, and living space has followed every expression of Palestinian frustration since the enforced establishment of a too-close-for-comfort relation between Arab and Jew under the British Mandate. All of it justified by Israel’s right to exist. Far from radical, Palestinians on balance have demonstrated NOBLE RESTRAINT as their place in the sun contracts incessantly. In this atmosphere, exactly what’s holding back the Palestinians from striking out at the authors of this Hell? USA included. It is lose-lose. By the way, this is the same NOBLE RESTRAINT demonstrated by black America…and will soon perhaps be demonstrated [or not] by America’s lower and middle class, as has been abundantly discussed here in Kunstler’s World.

Watch the news. Even they haven’t been able to hide it anymore. You really are clueless sometimes – typically when you don’t want to know because your sacred cows are threatened. Blacks must be one of them.

Care to come up with statistics about your assertions? Oh, never mind, I’ve got them for you! From the Bureau of Justice Statistics: Black on non-Black homicide was SEVEN times higher than White on non-White homicide. I hate this game where a person spews nonsense, passes it off as a kind of hidden statistical “wisdom”, and it turns out to be nothing but verbal diarrhea.

We’ve got La Raza and the NAACP (just think of what those letters stand for especially “advancement” … at whose expense?) which are thought of as viable and non-racist. Yet how can an organization whose name means “The Race” not be racist? They are “the” race? How can an organization which seeks only “advancement” for “colored people” be considered non-racist?

It’s like we not only have no respect for data any more. We also have no respect for the literal meanings of words with plain definitions which we are to ignore if ugly truths are unearthed. These truths only become uglier when they are codified into slogans and rules of social and business conduct which are only applied to white men while the transgressions of “others” are considered the just anger of the eternally oppressed. Orwell couldn’t even imagine this scenario.

I wonder how many Black victims of crime from other Blacks ever report them? I have a feeling that rate is a lot higher than Black on White crimes.

I,too, like data, but as they say, the devil is the details. All data must analyzed properly to have meaning. After all, the economy is improving, the US is an energy exporter, and the Dow is at 17,000. We are doing great!

I quite agree that the Devil is in the details. However, the Dow’s level is a lie “hidden in plain view”. The numbers of workforce participation, net consumer debt, etc. are there for all to see on sites like bls.gov. On the other hand, how do you spin things like “Black on non-white crime”?

Your theory, which is that blacks often don’t report black-on-black crime would only make the black-on-white crime stat that much more outrageous. BoJ crime stats, like any stats, can be “spun” but compared to the way in which stats like inflation are rigged with absurd things like “hedonic adjustments”, the BoJ numbers don’t have nearly the spin factor.

Look how far blacks have taken their game: The new “manhood” rite of cold-cocking unsuspecting white men and women. Wow, some “bravery” that takes i.e., to knock someone out with one punch via a sucker punch that they didn’t see coming. This is a demographic group in the USA whose rates of mayhem are so outrageous that in certain Western States ghettos where Hispanics have displaced them murder rates have DROPPED precipitously.

The American presumption to involve themselves is reflexive. They declined to involve themselves when it might have mattered in the 1930s and in the lead-up to the Great War. The USA ended up getting involved anyway. So now, the US gets involved in everything as a matter of course.

And so you have this mix of past history, domestic politics and collective American self image bearing down. You know, American exceptionalism and all that. America must assume leadership. Or so the line of thinking goes.

If Obama declines involvement in these chest-beating “blood and soil” squabbles the Republicans especially would be screaming into waiting cameras that Obama is weak, indecisive, pathetic and a sorry-assed excuse for leader. And that, mark their words, the United States and the world would pay dearly. Not only the Republicans but a slew of huffing, puffing pundits furrowing their brows on Sunday morning television round-tables.

But, no matter what, Republicans would be screaming. Interventionists, isolationists, take your pick, Republicans find in themselves an amazing philosophical flexibility. With those contortionists, no matter what Obama or the Democrats propose, it’s always too hot, too cold, too little, too late, or they have to oppose this or that because of, well, whatever.

And what does it matter anyway. Because the bottom line is that Republicans never accepted Obama’s political legitimacy even if he won the election day vote-count fair and square. No, you see, he’s not even American-born. The facts don’t matter. He’s not, he’s not, he’s not. So he CAN’T be President. Plus he’s Black. His father is a Black-as-can-be Black African. Let’s not discount that Big Big Elephant in the room. So Obama’s African. Oh, and Muslim. So, even if Obama IS somehow American, he’s really not.

So McCain and Palin were the rightful winners. The real and true Americans. Romney and Ryan too. Twice, the American electorate made a mistake. Or they were mis-led. Or something.

I figure that Obama is literally in a no-win position. He can’t win with anybody now, not even with Democrats, no matter what the issue, foreign or domestic. No matter what the initial support for whatever he does, Americans would come to deplore whatever action-inaction he opted for.

And the useless-as-tits-on-a-bull foreign policy establishment is, well, as useless as tits on a bull. Isn’t it just and fitting that Kerry is out there? He’s every bit as useless. Same with US intelligence agencies. Don’t ask their advice, those renowned inside-the-box-thinkers will think inside the box. Inside the box solutions for political masters that wouldn’t have it any other way. Not that Obama has a clue. He doesn’t. He’s looking now like a man looking to get out of town because at this point he’s looking like he couldn’t give a shit. I’ll bet he’s thinking fuck everybody. At least, if I were him, that’s what I’d be thinking.

The world would pay dearly? Maybe that would be a good thing. The world might learn something.

It’s very doubtful that Obama is legally the president. Why else the massive cover up of his record? And Republicans are for the rich as they have always been. We need a third way and a third party – one explicitly pro-American and that means pro-White.

How many $35000 per plate LBGT/DNC fundraisers can one man attend? It seems like there’s one scheduled every nite, mostly in Manhattan and Hollywood. Does he talk to anyone else? The whole goddam world is coming apart, Nobel Peace Prize not withstanding. Is there any time left to do the job he was hired to do.

So you know about the student aid he got as a foreign student? Or you know what his grades were (you’re the only one). Or you’ve read the articles he published as law student? (nothing).
He wasn’t vetted at all. Worship is not vetting you silly creature.

Senility is finally beginning to set in (which I suppose could be reversed with a plant-based diet and emphasis on plant-based Omega 3s). This edition of Clusterfuck Nation is officially the beginning of JHK’s end. Credibility will take a serious hit with this truly moronic, out-of-touch view of reality. At least this blog post yielded another hilarious JHK classic: “Palestinian war machine”.

Yes, a very sordid affair it is. It is making me think that cultures carry evil cultural memories which from each individual in the culture a strange atomic assent is given to a passing meme, impulse or action. The collective result of all the atomic assents by which the memory of an evil cultural memory is expressed the expression of new evil. For America we have a cultural memory of exterminating the American Indian, and so we turn a blind eye to similar extermination imagining a justification to avoid any unpleasant shame. In Israel there is a cultural memory of Nazi extermination camps and their horrors. Does this generate a subconscious collective memory that allows an evil to express. I only ask the question, I’m not a psychologist, do we have any here?

Much of it was inadvertent – the Indians had no resistance to our diseases.

Are you really sad that we conquered this continent? You wouldn’t exist otherwise. Being sad about the conquest is like putting up a picture of your face and throwing darts at it. You have to learn to will your own life. It means to have existential authenticity – and that means no more PC guilt or self hatred or any of its reactions, such as making yourself feel better by hating other Whites so as to “get in good” with minorities.

It seems, Mr. Skorenzy, that you’re a chap who is certainly beyond the revisionist historical re-creations of cultures like American Indians. In reality, when the dreaded White Man came to the New World, there were thousands of Amerindian “nations” whose main business was attacking and killing each other.

They were not these pacific beings who just grew maize and lived in harmony with the earth and each other. Much historical revisionism, in my opinion, is caused by what Tennyson called “craven fears of being great”. World history is replete with conquests and defeats. Only modern America and Europe seems guilt-ridden about these conquests. To expiate their guilt they have developed a terrible attraction to a worship of atavism which is amply seen via tattoos, clothing, and behavioral modalities which are either tribal “chic” or prison “chic” in nature. Sigh.

The US has a long history of aiding allies. In both World Wars France, Great Britain and Russia were the recipients of billions of dollars of largesse in the form materials and cash. After WW2 the Marshall Plan bailed out all of Western Europe.

Israel doesn’t get that much from the US, only about $4 billion per year, and what they do get is mostly in the form of credits they use to buy products from American companies. The Israelis are not wasting the money they get from the US.

What’s wrong with helping out a friend and ally? In return Israel assists the US when it can, such as in the realm of intelligence. Also after the Oklahoma City bombing and 911 Israeli search teams came and helped find people buried in the rubble.

War zones are indeed dangerous. Especially for commercial planes. It was obviously a big fault of someone to send an aircraft (despite being 10km above the ground) over the Ucranian territory.

I think that you should realize that violence is violence. This is no Robocop movie where everyone behaves as he would have ten lives. There is no excuse for it, whether you think Palestinians have legitimate claim or not. They are sentient human beings, who deserve to live. I would never mix it up with Islam. The problem is ethnic and socio-economic, not religious. And there is a huge difference between them.

You think Arabs keep things in such air tight compartments? It is religious from their point of view. Read the Koran: Jews mocked Mohammad and tried to smother Islam in its infancy. The attempt failed and Muslims don’t forget.

Qui bono? whose agenda benefits from this war? Have there ever been false flag operations in history? What evidence do we have it was palestinians who did this? Even if it was them, is killing hundreds of civilians a sane reaction?

There can be no strategic purpose to the Hamas attracts except to summon up some sympathy, if you want to call that a strategy. They cannot possibly hurt the Israeli state, only make it stronger.

If your political and a Palestinian in the territories then there is no hope and so some have chosen weak revenge and suicide by proxy. Meaning they might not be killed but their cousin might. No Palestinian in the territories will ever be a citizen of anyplace nor have any rights or really any property or in most cases a job or income. You know, that old fashioned stuff most still cling even as it slips away from more and more on a de facto basis.

When hopelessness becomes a known fact people do hopeless things. Like say the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto.

So at this point the US State Dept. is saying that there is no evidence of direct Russian involvement in the shoot-down of the passenger plane – but that the Russian government “created the conditions” for it.

OTOH, you could say the same about the US… That’s what proxy wars are all about.

The Jewish people as a whole is certainly set up to go out with a bang, not a whimper. I’ve seen it referred to as the “Third Temple” event. Back when the Golan Heights was being fought over, it was looking like Israel would be overrun – leading to the elimination of the Jewish state and its people – Israel was preparing to let of its fireworks which amount to some 144 nuclear missiles and bombs that make Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like little sparklers in comparison – all the while referring to this outcome as the “Third Temple”, the first being the Babylonian diaspora and the second, the Holocaust. If it turns out that the US Gov’t turns a blind eye towards Israel in favor of the crazed Hamas, ISIS and other Muslim fundamentalists, the next slap you hear will likely be the sound of a nuke exploding … if the Jews believe they’re to be exterminated, all the rest of us are going, too.

Yes and out of greed and/or guilt, and/or coercion and subterfuge, the Western Powers foolishly gave or helped them acquire these weapons. Do they have an iota of gratitude? No. Some of them are loyal to America – but only for as long as America caters to Israel and not a second longer.

Sure there may be a few who whose American identity trumps their Jewish one, but I’d say they are relatively few indeed. And most of them are probably hard core Liberal crazies so it’s no help.

I have few comments to make about the weekly post beyond these two items, and only because the stimulated my sense of humor:

1. Israel is fighting a highly kinetic, asymmetric conflict. The foe is dispersed among the populace – as they typically are in such conflicts, because they have no other choice. Blaming civilian collateral damage on ‘human shield’ tactics is cliché. I know at first-hand how this happens. It is also a *huge* red flag that what you are doing is not working.

May I point out that the French military dumped ‘counterinsurgency doctrine’ et al. AND there is a *very good* reason for that: they discovered [*] that when facing a popular insurgency it eventually becomes necessary to treat the host population as a combatant – at which point you have permanently lost the agitprop/political conflict.

Which is what is happening right now, and is partially what the weekly post is complaining about.

2. “Some time ago, the Left adopted the Palestinians as their pet oppressed minority group…”-JHK.

Well, ‘The Left’ likes an Underdog to root for. Israel is not an ‘Underdog’, nor has it been for decades now.

Apparently, some reclusive and/or echo-chambered Boomer holdouts did not get that memo…

Ironically, there was a time in the recent distant past when the *Israelis* were the “pet oppressed minority group” of The Left.

We have to ask ourselves, what did the Israelis do _so consistently_ which – over time – resulted them in getting moved out of the Underdog-champion category and into being seen as a global loose-cannon and all-around bully?

“Ironically, there was a time in the recent distant past when the *Israelis* were the “pet oppressed minority group” of The Left.

We have to ask ourselves, what did the Israelis do _so consistently_ which – over time – resulted them in getting moved out of the Underdog-champion category and into being seen as a global loose-cannon and all-around bully?” – md –

Best post of the week, md. And the US hasn’t been considered an underdog since the Civil War – but I’d say we’ve also moved into the global bully/loose cannon category of world opinion. We may know what it’s like to be Israeli before it’s all over.

I overheard a retired US Army colonel with a high-pitched voice saying, “criticism of Israel is the new anti-semitism,” out loud and in public last night. That may fly in the States among, as you say, a declining percentage of the boomer population – but it’s not a philosophy that’s going to have a long or logical shelf life out in the world at large.

But those Israelis are pretty smart. You’d think they could come up with an alternate plan. If this really is about fear of infiltration from tunnels from Gaza – then how about a series of dry moats and electronic monitoring gear on that border?

The main current goal of US in Ukraine is to hijack the energy pipeline coming from Russia to Europe and force Russia to sell it’s natural resources cheap, having American companies controlling the Ukrainian pipeline reap all the profits.

I think that the American shale gas to Europe is just a cover story – too expensive, too far in the future.

Failed provocation with Flight 17 is just a beginning, more fun things to come

It is a petty that such country as US came to that – it’s economical survival depends chiefly on the theft of someones natural resources.

So called separatists in Ukraine shoot down 2 more jet fighters, which isn’t an easy thing to do. I hear the Russian military disparaged quite a bit but it seems they’ve come up with some deadly hardware since cold war days.

these separatists might be anti world thugs, but what they really need to do to gain acceptance is to dress up their lunacy in the finery of revolutionary and liberation theology. For example, Che was a sociopath who personally murdered 19 people, but his face appears on the T shirts of gullible college students all over America. Bill Ayers was a psychopath who liked explosives; now he’s an honored professor. The ANC is another example of murderers and criminals who are now high up on the world political pantheon. They need to start flying the red flag and talking about oppression. that’s the certain path to modern sainthood.

BRH, what you forget to mention that the military jets are shot down during their bombing runs, so they are forced to fly under 1000 meters to hit the target (they mostly don’t have precision guided expensive missiles)

So the Army of Novorossia could shoot them down using stinger-like shoulder-fired “Igla” missiles.

Its is a valid self-defense measures since Ukrainian Punitive forces are indiscriminatory bombing civilian targets.

“these separatists might be anti world thugs, but what they really need to do to gain acceptance is to dress up their lunacy in the finery of revolutionary and liberation theology.”-BRH.

Well, it shouldn’t be too hard. They only have to be ‘better’ in a comparative way. Winning the PR-war against an unelected Nazi government [*] placed in power by the current US administration, is a task requiring no special talent or inspiration.

In the same way, it wasn’t hard for ‘Che’ to come out looking great against the mobbed-up fascist thugs of the Bautista regime, or the ANC to look like true ‘freedom fighters’ up against whack-job racist Afrikaaners.

Back Row, it might be helpful if we were a little less ‘tribal’ in our thinking.

Just because Bautista got along great with Meyer Lansky, and the Israelis thought the ideological racists running South Africa were good enough to sell nukes to, does *not* mean that these were the ‘good guys’.

And on 13 December 2012 the EU parliament also stated just that.
“The European Parliament
…

8. Is concerned about the rising nationalistic sentiment in Ukraine, expressed in support for the Svoboda Party, which, as a result, is one of the two new parties to enter the Verkhovna Rada; recalls that racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic views go against the EU’s fundamental values and principles and therefore appeals to pro-democratic parties in the Verkhovna Rada not to associate with, endorse or form coalitions with this party;”

Strangely, it has come to pass that a US administration – ostensibly ‘led’ by a non-white man – is backing neo-nazis…

Stranger still would be seeing American pro-Israel-come-hell-or-high-water hecklers backing them also.

Russian publicist: Contradictions are growing; American lifestyle is incompatible with the rest of the world.russiapost.su/archives/29796
The necessity of American Economy in economical injections from abroad reached a dangerously high level not compatible with the lifestyle of donor countries.
It is not a secret that USA consumes much more, in the recent 2 decades even twice as much, as it produces. Everybody so far went along with that thinking that they were getting, something in return. For instance EU thought it was getting a huge and highly liquid American market as well as military protection from USSR.
It became apparent lately that USA demands much more than the world could afford to give.
Why Americans have come to the point when their lifestyle becomes incompatible with the rest of humanity, is a separate question. But the fact itself is becoming clear to the rest of the world and US must react in more forceful way just from the instinct of self-preservation.
So expect more and more political and military upheaval including between USA and some European countries, specifically Germany.

Obama is at another fundraiser today, in San Francisco. Whether or not its LBGT I don’t know, but look where it is. How much $$$ do these people have? Its true they don’t have families to take care of. The strange thing is I read an article last week and census bureau says they’re less than 3% of the population. I know you have a lot invested in OBama, the savior and all that. Too bad it turned out this way ..

“The state has moved into many new areas as they become significant, such as… promoting nuclear power. This expanding role of the state helps prevent the rise of any significant competing forms of social organization…

The obvious point is that most social activists look constantly to the state for solutions to social problems. This point bears laboring, because the orientation of most social action groups tends to reinforce state power. This applies to most antiwar action too. Many of the goals and methods of peace movements have been oriented around action by the state, such as appealing to state elites and advocating neutralism and unilateralism. Indeed, peace movements spend a lot of effort debating which demand to make on the state:.. By appealing to the state, activists indirectly strengthen the roots of many social problems, the problem of war in particular…

Many people’s thinking is permeated by state perspectives. One manifestation of this is the unstated identification of states or governments with the people in a country which is embodied in the words ‘we’ or ‘us.’… It is important to avoid this identification, and to carefully distinguish states from people…”
~ Brian Martin, ‘Uprooting War’

for example, the state can criminalize some gun ownership ( gun manufacturers are moving to Tennessee because of recent anti-gun regulation in Maryland) but the state can not remove the militant attitudes dominating popular media and society.

pax romana, was successful because rome let the dominated nations be who they are religiously, culturally and socially. they installed local leaders who were not originally romans but from the local culture. those leaders were able to translate the demands (taxes and allegiance) to the general populations as well as magnifying the benefits, not being killed and having free trade. the states sole purpose is to provide a measure of security from which all may benefit.

a social imbalance is not managed but removed and/or destroyed by the state.

another case in point is the emigration imbalance. the state or national guard are only prepared to shoot transgressors on site. they are not trained to judge who is/is not worthy of amnesty.

“let me get this straight…
social problems are beyond the scope of the state.” ~ Karah

Is this a question?

The religion that is the state creates its own ecosociopoliticultural problems (that it then tasks itself to treat, which also makes it a racket) because if it is coercive/non-opt-outable, then it is fundamentally a social problem, and an ethically-corrupt one.

IOW, you can have your state religion/prison/human farm/governpimp/crony-capitalism-cum-corporatocracy/etc., just don’t lob it onto me and others who don’t want it.

The fundamental reason why James H.K. and many more of us dislike much of the human-made landscape is that there is no real, direct democracy, or hyperdemocracy.

Putin may be at the point where there is nothing left to lose having possibly been framed if indeed his proxies were tricked into shooting down MH17. Still no word of the Air Traffic Control data seized by the Ukrainians — which plays to his hand. If the tapes are gone, or if they are doctored with the same level of expertise we have enjoyed from the US State Dept. social media evidence then expect some Euro defections and an increasingly desperate USA.

Obama isn’t going to interrupt his Martha’s Vineyard vacation for a little nuclear war over Eastern Ukraine now, is he? Could Paul Craig Roberts’ fear from some months ago come to pass? Quick — change the channel to the Gaza re-runs. What year is this anyway? 1973?

I think Russia still has about 5000 nuclear warheads in its arsenal. I hope the esteemed leaders in the west take this fact into consideration when they talk about squeezing Russia with further economic sanctions.

Anyway, how do you sanction a nation which comprises 1/6 of the surface of the earth, and within living memory fought a victorious war in which they lost 25 million dead?

They took the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia very seriously. They rolled up portable medium range nukes and told NATO to get the hell out. NATO obeyed. Also a thousand or so Israeli soldiers went running for their lives back to Israel. Why were they there? Some dark deal no doubt.

Directly relevant to this week’s post, and well worth a read by all and sundry. I’m posting a longish excerpt below, but it’s a long article.

“It’s maddening to think that the tremendous military power Israel has amassed is not giving it the courage to overcome its fears and existential despair and take a decisive step that will bring peace. The great idea of the founding of the State of Israel is that the Jewish people has returned home, and that here, we will never be victims again. Never shall we be paralyzed and submissive in the face of forces mightier than us.

Look at us: The strongest nation in the region, a regional superpower that enjoys the support of the United States on an almost inconceivable scale, along with the sympathy and commitment of Germany, England and France – and still, deep inside, it sees itself as a helpless victim. And still it behaves like a victim – of its anxieties, its real and imagined fears, its tragic history, of the mistakes of its neighbors and enemies.

This worldview is pushing the Jewish public of Israel to our most vulnerable and wounded places as a people. The very essence of “Israeliness,” which always had a forward-looking gaze and held constant ferment and constant promise, has been steadily dwindling in recent years, and is being absorbed back into the channels of trauma and pain of Jewish history and memory.

You can feel it now, in 2014, within very many of us “new” Israelis, an anxiety over the fate of the Jewish people, that sense of persecution, of victimhood, of feeling the existential foreignness of the Jews among all the other nations.” – grossman –

Exactly. Beware the “victim”. I think most of us know to get the hell away from people like this when we meet them. We know they are utterly ruthless since they feel they deserve compensation. You are just a victimizer to people like this if you don’t give them what they want when they want. Somehow people lose this understanding at the macro level. If people could vote with the same commonsense they use in their lives it would be a big improvement.

The reason you probably support Israel so fiercely is out of a sublimated White Nationalism. In other words, you’ve given up on White America but you can still root for people who you think are White – even though they feel no kinship with you.

Long before White America was lost physically, it was lost ideologically. White Conservatives lacked the vocabulary by which they could justify their existence and defend their nation. Isn’t Christianity for everyone? Aren’t all men created equal? Millions of guys flipping hamburgers and drinking beer just gave up on such complication, settling down to be “fans” of a people who were for themselves 100% and had no qualms about defending what they had.

So how did Whites ever create America if they were like this? Easy, they weren’t like this. They were Israel, not after the flesh but the spirit. And they would have laughed at the idea of Blacks or Indians being Americans. Ein Reich, Ein Volk. One Land, One People.

Have read your column for several years but this is the first time have felt compelled to respond. History shows the Palestineans did not paint themselves into any corner because the land was theirs to begin with. The Isrealis are the squatters. This was the most one-sided I’ve ever seen you write.

Perhaps the [not-so] burning question of whether Yahtzee gets to leave town with bulging carpetbags of IMF ‘contributions’ should be considered. Now we get to see who Nuland’s next choice for puppet tin-pot dictator will be! Fun times… “It’s All Good!”

Do you think the US State Dept. suspects that the Russkies know just exactly what’s what? Er… um… yeah, THIS fairy-tale should bait the Bear just fine!

Please, benighted denizens of Theft-and-Liarland*, continue to coat yourselves well with egg. (More tasty when stewed/fried in your own juices that-a-way.) FWIW, the Russkies aren’t keeping mum out of guilt (in case you might have been entertaining that ridiculous notion.) It’s time to think creatively, and well beyond the tiny box where the stunted imaginations of our incompetent and bumbling buffoons of leaders are kept. (Plus, our papers-of-record have all decided that placing a cocked and loaded .357 pistol to their heads and pulling the trigger would be a dandy choice at this moment.)

* (In the spirit of MD’s useful addendums)
When your country imports twice as much as it produces, just how is it supporting itself and its’ lavish lifestyle?

Not only does Israel have people of other cultural and religious backgrounds with full voting rights, but they have Arabs and Palestinians serving as elected public officials in the Knesset. Now, if it were up to the Arab backwater states funding Hamas and the PLO, all Jews would be dead, all Christians would be dead (as they are now exterminating), all gays would be dead (which have human rights in Israel), all people with an opinion other than that of the caliphate would be dead (which they are in the process of now doing) and we would all be beating our wives before, during and after every trip to the market.

The people who defend the PLO and Hamas are the same ignorant people who have enslaved black people in America. That would be the liberal idiot who fought to give handouts to black people rather than allowing them to take what is rightfully theirs. That is, their own economic determinism, property rights, equal rights, equal access to society’s capital, a living wage, etc. The road to hell is paved with the liberal’s good intentions.

At some point, people need to quit being victims that allow others to define their fate and take responsibility for themselves. 50% incarceration rates, 70% out of wedlock birth rates, poor test score rates and the like for black Americans are not because I, as a white person, have destroyed their ability to achieve better with all of these and more dynamics. Ditto with the Palestinians who are victimized NOT by Israel but by the PLO, Hamas, liberal idiots and others who pretend to be looking out for their best interests.

WTF is a Palestinian anyway? Another made up group that claims victimhood and self-identifies with their own suffering. It’s some made up group of people supported by fanatic Arab Muslims to fight their battles against the Jews because it would be too messy to do it themselves. Without funding from liberal idiots and fanatic Muslims, they would simply disband into the Middle East population and become productive assets in a productive society.

Instead, they are endlessly victimized by corrupt predators in Hamas and the PLO.

Remember the spectacle of Lebanon being bombed to smithereens by Israel? Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, certainly not pro-Hezbollah, was caught between a rock and a hard place because he actually understood and appreciated Israel’s loss of patience with one of the better-funded Moslem radical groups yet he didn’t enjoy seeing billions of dollars of Beirut real estate being sent back to the Stone Ages. That guy never got his due.

The Moslem “brothers” in the Middle East remind me of the historical revisionism surrounding the Amerindians of the US Colonial Era. Indians were busy mostly attacking each other … not teaching whitey how to grow corn. Similarly, the Middle East features mostly primitive tribalism e.g., Shia against Sunni, Wahhabi against all, and Hezbollah/PLO/Hamas against anything israeli.

And then against all this tragi-comedy, the US pretending that it really “cares” about singing Kumbaya with various groups (like the wretched House of Saud) when really, when just want to “nuke their ass and take their gas”. This is really the darkest of dark comedies.

Alrighty then!
If an incipient WW Tres, by brushfires and paid-proxy shootin’ feuds being started all over the globe ain’t enough to engender some focus, maybe this will be (although I’m not about to place any bets in valuable barter items):

Some of youse “reeeaders” might want ot check out Laurie Garrett’s “The Coming Plague” to gain a little perspective in the ‘Impo’dense of Various Shit’ department. (Will it kill neo-nazis too? Well, only if they’re considered to be biologically human – brownish or no. Better get that eugenics program running right quick-like.)

Notice I said Ein Reich, Ein Volk – but I didn’t say Ein Fuhrer. I’m an Identitarian now and respect the rights of other peoples in their own lands – not mine however. The Fascist gloves come on only when must needs be. Obviously a seconds thought reveals the absurdity of having more than one people and culture in a given nation. It’s like having more than one body in a given mind – madness. The opposite is fine of course: having more than one nation in a given culture – such as the Italian or Greek City States.

John Kerry is getting hammered from all sides, but you have to feel for the guy. He’s bouncing around the world like a pinball. It can’t be easy for a man his age … after all he’s pushing 70. I’ve been reading about an earlier Secretary of State, John Hay — worked under Theodore Roosevelt — it was a tumultuous time too but he ran the show from his office in DC with a very small staff. Kerry must be a little addled as well because just about 6 months ago he was making speeches claiming Global Warming was the biggest threat we faced. Right now he’s trying to broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, phew, good luck on that.

“[Dr. Kevorkian] was also an oil painter. His work tended toward the grotesque and macabre; he sometimes painted with his own blood, and had created pictures such as one “of a child eating the flesh off a decomposing corpse.”[14] Of his known works, six were made available in the 1990s for print release. The Ariana Gallery in Royal Oak, Michigan is the exclusive distributor of Kevorkian’s artwork. The original oil prints are not for release.[26] Sludge metal band Acid Bath used his painting “For He is Raised” as the cover art for their 1996 album Paegan Terrorism Tactics.[27]”

First, I often encounter a certain attitude among Americans. They may absolutely hate the evil clowns in Washington who are ruining their lives, but when looking at the world, they suddenly decide that every other government is equally bad, that theirs is not so bad after all, and since the Ukrainians are suddenly our friends (or so says John Kerry) then they are not so bad either. Don’t make such assumptions. Look for evidence. To me it indicates that your government is run by evil clowns; other governments—not so much.

Second, citizens of the European Union shouldn’t think that it is only the dark-skinned people in faraway places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and so on that get killed in the various wars instigated by the US. Continue outsourcing your foreign policy to the evil clowns of Washington (and the spineless jellies in Brussels) and you too will get killed.

Lastly, we already know who the criminals are in this case: they are the western politicians and journalists. Airliners fall out of the sky with some regularity. This is tragic, but not unexpected, and is not necessarily the result of a crime. The real crime is in exploiting this tragedy in order to smear and insult an entire people. Don’t worry, the people in question are too wise to respond to such ridiculous provocations. But the reputations of western journalists who have been covering this tragic event have already gone up in smoke. All of western media is now about as good as Pravda was back in the Soviet days—good for wiping your ass with, that is. It’s a sad day for anyone who cares about the truth but can only understand English.

“All of western media is now about as good as Pravda was back in the Soviet days—good for wiping your ass with, that is.”

You know your ‘Reinventing Collapse’ – one of Dmitry’s books. A good essay, both yours and Orlov’s, I agree with Ozone.

Did you notice the barking of a familiar dog in the comments? I was advocating that forensics be uses to solve the tragedy, with a little help from an article Mr. Darling provided last week. A commitment to letting science solve the tragedy could calm some people down.

I’m not a big fan of anything Orlov writes because it is also tainted with confirmation biasm ego and the tainted perspective of a proud Russian who was beaten by the United States. His views always present some type of fallacy derived for a fundamental hatred of the United States. This patronizing post is no different.

To paint some type of picture that other governments are any less evil than our own is to deceive oneself of reality. All state actors who seek control over others are acting out some form of pathology. He finds some level of great amusement that the U.S. is failing. I find no great amusement that any people anywhere need to suffer under state violence and pathology. That includes the people of Palestine who suffer under the brutality of Hamas, Abbas, the PLO and Arafat. All of them stole billions from the Palestinian people while fomenting violence to maintain their control.

The supposedly higher morality of the Russian government has literally butchered hundreds of thousands of Chechens in a cleansing operation that saw the biggest use of ground military force anywhere in the world since World War II.

All the Chechen people wanted was to be free of the Russian bigotry and second class citizenship they are afforded under Russian state domination. By the way, the same Russian domination that Stalin invoked on Ukrainians in the mass genocide that killed millions. An engineered genocide meant to teach them who was boss. That is, big boss man Stalin the Russian butcher.

Putin is the consummate hypocrite. He mocks the world because Russian-heritage Ukrainians wish to leave and join Russia while denying a dozen states and ethnic provinces in Russia who want to leave Russia for the exact same reason. But the Chechens have the oil and other provinces have other economic value including mineral rights and we all know state predators will never give up anything that reduces their power. He’s a butcher just like the predators in Nazi Germany, the British Empirem the U.S. Empire and the Muslim fanatics trying to exterminate every Jew on earth. And Orlov? He’s just another tribalist hack hiding behind some faux level of intellectualism.

Most, if not all, terrestrial flora and fauna don’t know or care about human finance, governance, technology or other intricate nuances, complexities and idiocies that no one human can possibly entirely comprehend anyway, despite their (relatively/necessarily-limited) readings, writings, and Russia Today talking-head appearances.

You have no idea who started what. You aren’t privy to any information that would allow you to make that decision. And, neither is anyone else on this blog including me. That you believe you arrogantly know what is going on behind closed doors in all of the world’s halls of power is based purely on ignorant arrogance.

Awww, sorry TT; I guess you didn’t receive the [raft of] memos. Are you not possessed of the minimal security clearances?

Here’s one, you can find others is you wish to understand WTF is going on….. otherwise you may continue with your noble quest to slay any messengers that would dispute the official narrative or intrude upon your comfort zone.

Really? Dmitry Orlov’s family left Russia in a brain for grain deal in the 70s. His uncle was imprisoned, I gather his family was persecuted, so he has no reason to stick up for the former USSR.

I think he is a straight forward man with a brilliant scientific mind that is unbiased and gives it to you straight, no chaser.

Yes, the Chechens are such wonderful people. From what I have heard of them, they remind me of these animals. Remember the school they took over and killed all those children? liveleak.com/view?i=190_1406399936

What size sody-pop and type of fast food will he purchase in downtown J’rooz-lum?
His grand ideas on pot-smoking and gun control should smooth the roiling waters “over there”. (Why won’t these assholes ever go TF a-WAY and STFU??)

Washington D.C., July 24, 2014 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged three Morgan Stanley entities with misleading investors in a pair of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) securitizations that the firms underwrote, sponsored, and issued.
Morgan Stanley agreed to settle the charges by paying $275 million to be returned to harmed investors.

The jewish writer Uri Avnery has said that Netanyahu and his supoporters are creating a kind of racist state,,,he calls it” zio-fascism” and says Jews must break with this situation or the whole project will faikl

True, therian, and it also means that TOTAL black crime in the US may be even higher than the reported rate. And since that reported rate is already higher for US blacks than for any other major demographic group – a bad situation may be even worse than it already is believed to be by “leadership.”

“Posts on this blog really need a “thumbs up/thumbs down” vote for each one. That would be quite curious, to say the least…
Oh, and at least the Israelis are warning Palestinian building occupants (hospitals/schools/etc) by phone message” – zrcryp –

That would be awesome, zecryp – the up/down votes, not the phone warnings, which are a nice touch.

It would make for a weird SNL skit – referencing the phone warnings. For example, Abdul and his wife come in and play their answering message to discover their apartment is due to be targeted right that second. Or, little baby Abdul answers the phone and is sitting there talking baby talk into the receiver as the missile comes in through the window. Yeah, lugubrious. Some of us have a twisted sense of humor.

I really admire JHK for acknowledging, among other things, that the population of Israel and the middle east will plummet – after oil.
That’s a good start toward acknowledging other possible realities.

Back during Viet Nam, people really did say, “My Country, right or wrong.” I was a kid – too young to vote of be drafted – but I still thought it was an iillogical thing to say.

But at least the statement acknowledge the possibility that the US could be wrong about something.

Some pro-Israeli voices seem to take it a step further – –
“My Country is never wrong.”

It seems we’ve made a precipitous retreat out of Libya, on top of everything else. Yes, a motly caravan of SUVs, State Dept. officials and staff beating a hasty retreat westward into Algeria today, protected by a company of Marines, covered by Osprey Helicopters, drones and carrier born aircraft. Libya has fallen into a state of murderous chaos where legitimate government has evaporated and its all against all, militia against militia. Its too dangerous for the US to have a diplomatic presence in Libya.

Does anybody know what US foriegn policy is? Do we have a foriegn policy? Lead from behind? Don’t do stupid shit? Vacation in a $12 million mansion on the Vineyard while the world unravels? It might be time for some leadership by the people on top, don’t you think? Is anybody going to do anything about Christians being liquidated in Iraq by ISIL, just because they’re Christians. I heard on the news that just last week nearly 3000 people were killed in the fighting in Syria. And there’s this: again in Iraq, the tomb of Jonah, who got swallowed by the whale, an acient Church for centuries and now a Mosque, a world historical site, was dynamited and turned into rubble by ISIS forces on a mission.

All you smart people, always talking down to us with barely concealed hatred, the know it all academics at ivy league universities, think tanks in Washington and NY, Foundations busy underming the country, the windbags and know it all PBS bullshitters, with high salaries and condecending attitudes, I thought you had it all figured out? What happened? Were you just gassing over the airwaves to hear yourself talk, to get on TV, to get tenure? the whole goddam world is coming apart. What do you have to say now?

“Does anybody know what US foriegn policy is? Do we have a foriegn policy?”

BRH,
Although I’m pretty sure most of your questions are rhetorical, I’ll attempt a brief summary of “official policy”.

1. Destabilize
2. Divide (preferably by inflaming ancient grievances, so as to get the real killing started)
3. Conquer (this has been having what is commonly known as, “mixed results”)
4. Rule by proxy, satrap, puppet, warlord, etc. (basically whomever has a special gift for ruthlessness and employment of violence)

Of course there’s more “policy” or “policing”, but these are the basic bullet-points of the current exercise of power that maintain a very real empire. (I would ask again: How does a society that only produces half of what it consumes, relate to/deal with its’ neighbors and itself in order to secure the ‘necessary’ resources to continue its’ profligate lifestyle?)

I hear you, Marlin and I agree. Take it from one who has been there, it has been very frustrating. I cope with all this bullshit by trying to develop an attitude that says, “What can I learn from this? How can I turn this around into a positive for me? What is it about me that allows me to get upset about this, because I always have the option to choose how I react to any given situation.

“Does anybody know what US foreign policy is? Do we have a foreign policy?”-BRH.

Just b/c it’s Sunday, and b/c it might actually help one small iota I will say this: No, The USA no longer has any internally and externally, consistent and coherent foreign policy.

Big Money _always_ had a huge influence on national priorities, and sometimes that wasn’t an all-bad thing (why do you think that we have a Navy?). On the other hand, over the past quarter-century it’s become the *only* priority-setter.

How did it come to this? I think you have most of the answer, so I’m asking rhetorically.

The Libyan Debacle is the result of a lot of hard work and dedication – in the service of a cabal no more mysterious than the list of the Fortune 500.

America doesn’t have a ‘foreign policy’.

It takes an actual ‘nation-state’ to relate to others as such, and there’s no place in all the __Realm of Mammon__ for any such thing as a ‘nation-state’.

“All you smart people, always talking down to us with barely concealed hatred, the know it all academic….” – brh –

I wouldn’t be too hard on the “academics,” backrow. For a free society to remain free – intellectual dissent is necessary. The problem that has developed in the US, and in Western Civilization since the ’60’s, is that dissent has become one-way. IOW, there are almost no academics that present a countervailing view. Yesterday’s dissent has hardened into today’s sclerotic mainline academic view. This may be SOP as civilizations go over their cliffs throughout history.

And US policy since the time of Lincoln, at least, has been all about expansion of territory, economics, and ideology, mostly to the benefit of big business. What your or I *believe* about it makes zero difference to this progression. And eventually this progression will slow, stop and reverse – again, regardless of what any of us living through it believe about it.

To paraphrase the lookout on the Titanic, “Interesting times dead ahead!”

When someone wants to engage in name-calling, they pick what they consider disparaging epithets, in your case, “neocon Jews”. This just shows your true feelings, that you dislike Jews. If you were honest, you’d just come out and say it. But since you are a troll – and a troll you are because if you don’t agree with CFN’s basic premises, why the fuck would you even read this blog, let alone comment on them? You would be much better off seeing a shrink rather than making a fool of yourself.

Admit it Bill, some of the Israelis (as well as some American Jews and their supporters) are as bloodthirsty as the Muslims. Sometimes they have children write curses on the shells. Journalists have seen Israelis watching and celebrating the shelling in lawn chairs as if they were fireworks.

I like James, and seriously think he might do well to create an ecovillage in his neck of the woods with his readership, and then write about it.
If he does, then I would like to take this opportunity to respectfully request participation.
The problem with much of this kind of stuff is that it’s out of scale with the fundamental local, small-scale tribal nature of our species.

I think had Michael Ruppert considered that in his area, he may have still been alive today.

This culture is in large part about alienation and isolation of course.

Incidentally, some of my favorite podcasts were when Jim and Duncan would wander around the environments and record their sessions. I liked them partly because of the cute, quirky, intelligent banter and spontaneity, the on-the-spot interviews, and the background sounds of the area to lend some atmosphere– birds, traffic, people, etc..

“One manifestation of this ideal of refusing geopolitical borders in favour of older or no borders can be seen in Hogan’s repeated references to the idea of Pangaea, the theorized ‘original’ landmass that eventually broke apart into the continents… Through their reconnection with Native understandings of space and their successful creation of an effective coalition, Hogan’s characters claim citizenship as Native subjects who have a different but valid knowledge of the world and can forge the political power to help shape that world.” ~ Dreaming of Pangaea: Decolonizing Strategies in Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms

“My posts have been removed with others, despite a tolerance for a high percent of ad hominem posts. If you don’t like what I say , how about having the civility to say why?” – jonabark –

You are correct, jonabark. I made reference to one of your posts, mentioning you specifically by the name “jonabark.” That particular post of yours was very well reasoned and thoughtful, as I recall.

That post of mine with your handle in it was deleted as well. I just did a search for it. Censorship is rarely a good idea, JHK. Things tend to fester, you know?

In JHK’s defense, one of your other posts was a paraphrase of John Lennon, to the effect of, among other things, “Imagine all the bankers, floating out in space….”

I am certain that, I called you on that one for it’s over-the-top implications. You wrote back to say it was intended as humor.
JHK must have gone us one better, and deleted the whole thread.
Which could be another problem with threaded discussions on a weekly discussion board like this one.

I wish JHK and his tech guy would disable the “threaded option.”
Yeah, yeah, I know. “Wish in one hand and shit in the other one, and see which hand fills up first.”

OK, that’s it for me for the week. Gotta’ drive to another distant funeral. The last generation that remembers BackRow’s and my America really is dying out pretty fast.

I believe I’ll make a copy of this post for later viewing.
Just in case, you know?

“Imagine there’s no Jews, I wonder if you can
No Israel to die for, and no Jerusalem too
Imagine all the bankers, floating in outer space
You may say I’m a murderer, but I’m not the only one
I hope one day you’ll coin me, and the toil will be done”
-seawolf-

Now that’s over the top, IMO. And I’m not Jewish.
I can’t imagine what you said that was worse than this, jonabark.
Too bad. So sad.

And how about the elaborate tunnels in Gaza the IDF are uncovering and destroying? The tons of concrete used in those things? Could not these resources be put to better use? Like perhaps building a legitimate economy.

I was listening to BBC last night and they were interviewing the British Headmaster of a UN School where armaments and explosives were being stored, and discovered when Hamas fighters came to retrieve them. The interviewer was incredulous. I was surprised it was on the air at all, but BBC, to its credit, will report inconvenient facts as they become known.

This is Western Civilization vs barbarism, and I’m surprised so many here fall in on the side of anti world thugs and not of a progressive democratic nation.

If no Ukrainian uprising occurred, Putin’s strategy was to allow the government in Kiev to unravel of its own accord and to split the United States from Europe by exploiting Russia’s strong trade and energy ties with the Continent. And this is where the crash of the Malaysia Airlines jet is crucial. If it turns out — as appears to be the case — that Russia supplied air defense systems to the separatists and sent crews to man them (since operating those systems requires extensive training), Russia could be held responsible for shooting down the plane. And this means Moscow’s ability to divide the Europeans from the Americans would decline. Putin then moves from being an effective, sophisticated ruler who ruthlessly uses power to being a dangerous incompetent supporting a hopeless insurrection with wholly inappropriate weapons. And the West, no matter how opposed some countries might be to a split with Putin, must come to grips with how effective and rational he really is.

Of course there is nothing that our friends Ukrainians can’t royally screw up. The friggin plane happened to crush in a wrong place and was shot down by a wrong weapon – that is ONLY reason for delay in the investigation. They know that Russians know, and Russians know that they know. The problem is they don’t know EXACTLY what Russkies could prove and what they have up their sleeve – another Ed Snowden for crying out loud?

For those who don’t know there is Russian peace-keeping contingent in a small pro-Russian strip of land – “Dnestr Republic” – between Republic of Moldova and Ukraine since 1992.

SR500 calls for withdrawal of Russian troops and “Dnestr Republic” to surrender to Moldova. Situation is complicated by close vicinity of NATO-member Romania.

There are reports of impending provocation from Ukrainian side against Russian peacekeepers, including multiple rocket launchers of type “Grad” and “Uragan”. As it well known, Ukraine currently is under direct governance from United States.

The SR 500 resolution was developed by Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen, in cooperation with Senators Marco Rubio, Robert Menendez, Christopher Murphy, Richard Durbin, as well as Republican Senator John McCain and the chairman of the Helsinki Commission, Democrat Senator Ben Cardin, who visited Moldova on April-July 2014.

At stake is also a second-largest warm water port on the Black Sea – Odessa.

Once upon a time back in WW1, there was a highly-competent British ‘military-advisor’ leading impoverished desert-dwellers against a greedy & sadistic Empire.

An imperial commander arrayed his troops on plateau high above a town at the edge of the desert, and dared the desert-dwellers to come out and fight.

The advisor was intrigued, so he took a look at the imperial forces arrayed against him, dug-in deeply – in a line – at the edge of the plateau. He smiled, and then he suggested a way for his wily desert friends to utterly destroy the imperial troops…

The next morning, while celebrating victory in the gratefully liberated town below, an outsider asked the errant Brit how he figured it out what to do:

“Very simply, they completely outnumbered us if we came at them from the front or the rear, but at the ends of their line they were merely a squad…”

“And so…?”

“We wiped them out, one squad at a time!” he said with a light-hearted chuckle.

— — —

It’s called ‘Rolling Up the Flanks’. In this case, the flanks of an empire. I’m being metaphorical, of course.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

[…] LUCKILY FOR THE WEST, there is enough animosity between the Islamic factions to distract Islam from its mission to defeat all the great-and-small Satans cluttering up their world. All this is happening as that world lurches into the twilight of the oil age, which until lately had given so much financial leverage to Islam. Really, the entire Middle East, including Israel, has overpopulated itself so severely that the only plausible outcome is the desperate fight over what’s left. A hundred and fifty years ago a mere half million people inhabited the place that is now Israel, and more than 90 percent of them were Arabic. Then came the great Industrial explosion of activity, migrations, and soaring birth rates thanks to fossil fuels. When that phase of history concludes, the population there will go down accordingly. (James Kunstler) […]

Leave a Reply

Archives

Archives

Read More

Too Much Magic

Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation

The nationally best-selling author of "The Long Emergency" expands on his alarming argument that our oil-addicted, technology-dependent society is on the brink of collapse—that the long emergency has already begun. Published by the Atlantic Monthly Press.